5 Reasons That You Might Want To Consider a Couples Intensive Boot Camp
Akin to a “boot camp” for relationships, couples intensives are condensed, intense periods of counseling designed to address couples relationship issues swiftly and effectively, allowing the couple to experience breakthroughs and benefits in a single session vs. months of traditional therapy.
This article will explain five benefits of a couples intensive camp.
1. Building an effective foundation
Research has shown that the most successful treatment plan for couples is one which begins with an intensive treatment session, and any required follow-up treatment is spaced out. By starting couples therapy with an intensive you are engaging in the most successful approach in couples therapy.
2. Greater focus, greater results
The experiential approach is so important to lasting changes. Having the environment that allows couples to sidestep the distractions of traditional therapy is so important for achieving real solutions to relationship problems. Intensives allow the space and time to focus on the deep-rooted relationship issues rather than getting bogged down in the necessary maintenance of life in between sessions in the traditional therapy environment. Intensives provide a space to leave behind the distractions of daily life and focus on the relationship.
3. Timely and time-saving
Research has found that traditional models of couples therapy may not work fast enough or be effective enough for couples whose relationships are severely damaged. It is becoming a growing practice for couples therapists to offer longer therapy sessions. Additionally, by investing in a couples intensive, it saves having months of managing sessions in already-busy schedules.
4. Meaningful guidance
Couples attending couples intensives are able to do deeper work because they have the time to be in emotional states where the feelings are similar to what they experience at home while being guided towards insight and understanding. This is not something you can experience if you attend a weekend workshop or weekend marriage retreat. It takes a specialized clinician to be able to work with couples to get them activated enough to be in the state, but not so charged that learning cannot take place. You can make progress and benefit from a retreat that is educational, but the transcending feature is missing.
5. Skilled support
Therapists offering these types of services are often the clinicians who are at the top of their field. For example, clinicians who are mentored by Drs. Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson, founders of the Couples Institute, are among the highest skilled therapists in the world. Considered pioneers of couples therapy, Dr. Bader and Dr. Pearson have developed an intensive apprenticeship program to pass their knowledge off to a few carefully chosen therapists. Each year, they interview and select only 5-10 therapists for their advanced Master Mentoring program. Over the course of a year, this select cohort studies closely under Drs. Bader and Pearson, learning what they do, why they do it, and how to do it.
I specialize in couples therapy and facilitate these couples boot camp intensives. I am a Gestalt-trained therapist and use the Bader-Pearson Developmental Model of couples counseling. I have been trained under Drs. Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson for the last 4 years, including their intensive apprenticeship program. I am passionate about helping couples get out of the argument cycle and create relationships that others are jealous of.
If you are ready to create a relationship that makes you want to come home at night, contact us to book a couples boot camp consultation. Together, we will create a customized plan to help your relationship get results right away.
