Private Couples Therapy Retreat

First, you will have an initial 50-minute session together with the therapist to give you an overview of your relationship and your relational challenges. Then, each of you will have an individual session to fill in important details and feelings from your perspective. Then, you will both be invited to go online with the Gottman Institute to each fill out their Couple's Checkup, which will identify your relational dynamics and issues and then compare them to their 35-year research on "Why Marriages Succeed Or Fail.” 

By taking the Couples' Checkup you receive an eye-opening diagnosis of your marriage. Then, you are asked to purchase one of John Gottman's books, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, and study it as your "Marriage Manual." Finally, you have your Private Intensive Marriage Counseling Weekend to work on your customized treatment plan, applying the skills learned from your marriage manual, and receive other marital tools and learn to use them. Attending an intensive marriage counseling retreatreinforces your trust and commitment to each other and will help you weather relational challenges and emerge even stronger as a couple. Most couples that have attended one of these weekend Marriage Intensives agree that the experience has "transformed their marriage."

A typical 50-minute session a week for four months isn’t as effective as a private couples weekend intensive because you lose time at the beginning of weekly sessions and often discuss the fights from the previous week. To top things off, you typically run out of time when you are partway through trying to work through this difficult relational issue. Since your relationship has not been diagnosed and there is no treatment plan, this session pattern recurs over and over again, each week. 

Frustration, discouragement and pain continue to mount. Is it any wonder that the typical marriage counseling approach has had a poor reputation with many people over the years?

You and your partner will retreat to Seeley Lake, Montana, just 45 minutes from Missoula, where you can renew your relationship, away from the bustle and distractions of your hometown, while spending a weekend at a state campground, resort, or cabin. 

Take an extra day or more and paddle the Clear Water Canoe Trail or hike to Holland Lake Falls or Morale Falls. Visit nearby trails, lakes and streams, or just sit outside your scenic lodge or campsite and relax during your downtime. 

For lodging, you might consider:

• Double Arrow Lodge
• The Lodges on Seeley Lake
• Rich’s Ranch
• Placid Lake State Park