Couples Intensive Retreats in Australia

Is your relationship in crisis? Don’t have time for weekly counselling? Do you need help from a relationship expert? Couples intensive retreats might be exactly what you need. It’s a two day relationship fix!

Please note

Due to COVID-19, until further notice, couples intensive retreats will be held only via Zoom,  a video conferencing platform. They will take place on Sundays and Mondays, or over two Sundays in a row. See available dates listed below. Other dates may be available by negotiation

In the privacy of either my Faulconbridge practice or in a hotel suite in the Sydney CBD, learn evidence-based skills for building and improving intimacy in your relationship based on 40 years of research conducted at the Gottman Institute. The intensives take place at these two locations, but you stay nearby in accommodation of your choice in Sydney or the Blue Mountains.  It’s possible to combine the couples’ intensive with a romantic holiday experience as well!

Drs. John & Julie Gottman developed a focused and rewarding way of giving your relationship a boost of energy. They’ve designed an exquisite couples retreat that can be tailor-made to fit you and your specific relationship issues.

You may be aware that divorce and separation statistics are high. Many couples don’t realise that there are evidence-based methods, based on scientific principles, which can make couples happy and create successful relationships.

It’s a fact! Over forty years of research has revealed the secrets behind why some relationships grow and flourish while others are fated to crash and burn. I’m running these couples intensives to help prevent unnecessary separations or, if a break-up is threatening, as a final resort to retain your friendship.

During the couples intensive retreats, you’ll learn how to:

• Invigorate your friendship
• Communicate clearly
• Boost your connection and understanding of each other
• Vitalize your intimacy & re-sexualise your relationship
• Heal sex and sexuality issues
• Work through the discovery of an affair
• Discover what hopes are hidden within your inevitable relationship conflicts
• Learn to manage conflict and also repair after fights
• Re-set your common values and shared purpose
• Set your own goals and/or we can create them together.
• Separate or divorce while respecting each other.

This may be the smart choice you need to make right now!

A couples intensive retreat is:

• One week-end. (Week days are possible via negotiation).
• Private – just for the two of you. No other couples attend with you. You have me to yourself for two days.
• Consisting of 18 hours of couples therapy. This equals 12 couples sessions over two days.

If your relationship is caught up in repeated fights or in silent, stony distance, help is possible. With an expert to guide you, old hurts can be repaired so you rapidly improve your relationship. But it’s important to make sure you get the best help possible.

Relationship counselling is my specialty. I’m a clinical counsellor, therapist and coach specialising in relationship issues. I’m a specialized and expertly trained couples therapist with a Masters degree in counselling. I’m also an accredited sex therapist with ASSERT. I work for your best interests.

Not all counsellors and psychologists are well-trained in couples work. Without specific training in couples work, which includes training in assessing and treating sex issues in psychotherapy, you may not get the help you need. And if these couples counsellors don’t practice evidence-based relationship tools in their own lives, these poorly-trained therapists can’t help your relationship to resolve issues and old hurts. Make sure you choose a therapist who’s well-trained in couples work and who can help you achieve your specific relationship goals.

Here’s a free relationship happiness quiz to test your relationship.

Your relationship can be renewed. You’ll get information about what love really is and how to create it in your life. You’ll get help to restore and deepen intimacy and passion. Fairy-tales about romance and sex will be replaced with specific skills and tools to spice up your life. There’s decades of science which shows what will really work for you.

A couples intensive retreat is the equivalent of 18 hours of therapy, over one intensive week-end, with just you and your partner and me, an experienced counsellor & accredited sex therapist. In many cases intensives have reversed gridlocked relationship problems and helped create deeper understanding, connection and hope.

• One week-end or 2 week days
• Eighteen hours
• Plus a thorough evidence-based assessment of your relationship.

Private couples intensive retreats are a week-end or two week days. They may be the ideal solution for you if you can’t find a well-trained couples therapist near home. In addition intensives are useful if you can’t come to regular weekly or fortnightly sessions. If needed, we can follow up the intensive with phone, Skype or VSee sessions from your home.

Many couples have made rapid gains by doing couples intensive retreats. You’re away from your normal surroundings, without interruptions and no kids! You have the perfect opportunity to sort through bad habits and unproductive ways of relating in a focused and constructive way. With information and coaching from an experienced couples therapist, both of you will feel supported and guided to encounter something totally different. This often restores hope in what seemed a hopeless situation.

World-famous couples researcher and therapist Dr. John Gottman suggests couples get away 3-4 times a year, by themselves, without kids, and without friends to distract you. How often do you focus only on your relationship?

Couples Intensive Retreats are NOT advisable in these situations

• If either one or both of you have active drug and/or alcohol abuse, from either partner’s perspective.
• If there is serious violence or threats of violence, or fear that serious violence may occur on the part of one or both partners.
• If either of you has an untreated/unmanaged mental illness (major depression, schizophrenia, psychotic depression, bipolar illness). This doesn’t include past, successfully treated psychotic episodes.
• If there is an ongoing, current affair that you are not willing to disclose (secrets predict couples therapy failure).
• If either of you are currently experiencing suicidal or homicidal thoughts, or has a history of serious harm inflicted on yourself or another person.

Available couples intensive retreat DATES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Other dates may be available by negotiation. Bookings are made at least 8 weeks in advance to secure your place. Early registration is recommended. Urgent bookings are possible.

2020 – Intensives will be online only via Zoom due to COVID-19 on Sundays and Mondays. September 13-14, October 4-5, 18-19, November 1-2, 15 -16 & 29-30, December 13-14. Other dates may be available by negotiation.

Contact me to schedule an appointment for a couples intensive retreat, or call +61 421 961 687. I will be happy to answer any questions you have about my intensives. International clients call +61 421 961 687.

You can also book a couples Zoom session with me if you can’t come to my practice locations. If you’re not ready to book an appointment, call me on (0421) 961 687 to book a FREE 15 minute phone consultation to discuss how I may be able to help you.

Vivian Baruch provides relationship counselling, marriage counselling, relationship coaching and sex therapy online and services the following areas: Penrith, Glenbrook, Blaxland, Springwood, Faulconbridge, Hazelbrook, Lawson, Wentworth Falls, Leura, Katoomba, Blackheath, Mt. Victoria, NSW. She also conducts couples intensive retreats in Faulconbridge & Sydney CBD, NSW.