Couples Therapy Intensives

Sometimes a betrayal, illness, caregiving experience, or something from one or both partners’ histories changes what is happening between you in ways that are hard to understand from inside the relationship.

More time may be useful when:

• The same conflict keeps repeating.
• You've stopped bringing certain things up, and the distance has its own weight.
• Trust, intimacy, sex, or closeness has changed.
• A rupture, loss, or major transition has changed the relationship.
• There is enough shared willingness to look honestly at what is happening between you.

An intensive is not automatically the right choice because something feels urgent or painful. Preparation and screening help me understand whether this format makes sense for the relationship and for each of you.

Some couples come because something hurts. Others come because something matters. My couples work includes queer and LGBTQIA+ partnerships, and relationships at many stages of commitment.

You may be dating seriously or considering a deeper commitment, adjusting to marriage or another form of long-term commitment, deciding about living together or children, or intentionally building a partnership without marriage. You may be in a relationship that doesn't follow a script you were handed, or working through questions about exclusivity, monogamy, consensual non-monogamy, or other relationship agreements. You may be reconsidering what commitment means, or trying to understand whether you want the same kind of future. You may know that you care about each other and still have important questions about what you're building together, about what each of you learned a relationship is supposed to look like, or what happens when those expectations meet.

In couples work, it's one thing to talk about the cycle you have at home. It's another to notice it beginning between you in the room.

With more time, we can slow those moments down. We can catch the point where one of you starts protecting, pursuing, withdrawing, explaining, fixing, defending, or shutting down, or where someone loses access to what they were trying to say.

The goal isn't to keep you in difficult conversations longer. It's to have enough room to do something different when the familiar cycle shows up.

More time does not remove either partner's right to slow down, pause, disagree, or say no.

The approach depends on what is happening between you and what we are trying to understand or change. My couples work may draw from Relational Life Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman-informed approaches, and EMDR adapted for couples. When intimacy, sexual connection, or desire is part of what is happening between you, that can be part of the work too.

An intensive isn't several hours of one technique.

The intensive doesn't start when you walk in or end when you leave. Here's the shape of it.

• Assessment when it would be useful
• Workbook and therapeutic resources to carry forward
• Preparation I complete outside our session time
• Planning shaped around what we’re actually working with

Full-day intensives include six hours of therapy and a one-hour lunch break. The 3-hour format includes a shorter break.

For multi-day intensives, days may be scheduled consecutively or spaced out when that makes more clinical sense. We'll decide that before dates are finalized.

You'll know the schedule, breaks, and basic structure before you arrive.

Couples intensives are available in person in San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas, and virtually for clients located in Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.

A limited number of in-home and destination couples intensives may also be available in Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. We'll talk about the setting, privacy, and travel during consultation. If travel is involved, I'll give you the full cost before you decide whether to book.

• 50% due at booking for intensives scheduled 30+ days in advance; remaining 50% due 7 days before the intensive.
• Intensives booked fewer than 30 days in advance are paid in full at booking.
• Cancellation responsibility increases as the intensive date approaches.
• One reschedule is permitted with at least 14 days' notice, subject to the existing policy.
• Preparation and Integration appointments follow the practice's standard 48-hour cancellation/rescheduling policy.

1. 01

   New Client Consultation

   30 minutes. We start with a conversation. Tell me what’s been happening between you, what each of you hopes might be different, and what you’re wondering about working with me. I’ll answer your questions and we’ll decide whether it makes sense to move into a full assessment.
2. 02

   Clinical Assessment & Recommendations

   90 minutes · $375. If we decide to keep going, this is where I take a much closer look at the relationship—what keeps happening between you, what each of you brings into the cycle, what you’ve already tried, and what I’m noticing. Then I’ll tell you what I recommend, even if it isn’t an intensive.
3. 03

   We decide what happens next

   If I recommend working together and you both want to, we’ll decide what that actually looks like. An intensive is one possibility, not the assumption.
4. 04

   We get it scheduled

   Once we know what we’re doing, we’ll choose dates, take care of payment, and make sure both of you know what to expect.
5. 05

   Preparation

   We meet for the 90-minute Intention Setting + Preparation appointment before the intensive so we're not starting cold on the day itself. Preparation happens after an intensive has been recommended and selected, and it does not replace the assessment.