What is a Couples Intensive?
A Couples Intensive is a highly effective approach to addressing relationship injuries or distress, shifting negative patterns into supportive connection, and creating a stronger bond between you.
This two-day private couples counseling session allows you to give your full attention to the work of shifting and rebuilding your relationship without having to slip back into your other roles at work or home. Without the pressure of the clock, we can cover the ground of months of weekly sessions in 2 days.
I offer both in-person and Telehealth options for Couples Intensives. Intensives typically last 5-6 hours per day, giving us time to get to the heart of your concerns or issues. I will help you gain the insights, experiences, and tools you need to shift the trajectory of your relationship to one of hope and connection.
There is flexibility within this schedule. We may get to a good place in less time than the scheduled block. We will pause there so that your brain and body can take in what you did. We may also decide not to have as long of a break and come back early. We can make these decisions while we are together.
Why choose an intensive?
What couples and therapists too often do not see is that most fights are really protests over emotional disconnection. Underneath all the distress, partners are asking each other: Can I count on you, depend on you? Are you there for me? Will you respond to me when I need, when I call? Do I matter to you? Am I valued and accepted by you? Do you need me, rely on me? The anger, the criticism, the demands, are really cries to their lovers, calls to stir their hearts, to draw their mates back in emotionally and reestablish a sense of safe connection.
Sue Johnson, Hold Me Tight: Your Guide to the Most Successful Approach to Building Loving Relationships
new pathways
Meeting together intensively over 2 days allows us to get beneath all the layers of history, disappointment, and conflict to the heart of the matter – what you each need and are craving in connection with each other. Together we will forge a new pathway to the secure, supportive connection you each need.
uninterrupted connection
Between our meeting times, you can just focus on meeting your own needs or enjoy some much needed time connecting with each other–without having to jump back into your other roles at work, home, or in your community.
rest, explore, restore
Whether you live locally or are traveling from elsewhere, I encourage you to block off these days from any other commitments, including work or childcare. Create a buffer for yourself and your partner to just rest, explore Bellingham, eat nourishing foods, or whatever else will be restorative for you.
Please reach out here to schedule a free consultation with me so we can determine if investing in a Couples Intensive with me is a good fit for you.
WHO ARE INTENSIVES RECOMMENDED FOR?
This more focused opportunity is for you if:
- You are ready to dive in and make lasting, positive changes in your relationship.
- You are in distress or crisis and unsure of the path forward, but know it can't stay how it is now.
- You feel stuck in a negative cycle and want the fighting to stop.
- You’ve become distant–like roommates–and don’t know how to be close again.
- Weekly counseling isn’t working with your schedules or the childcare shuffle.
- You are already seeing a therapist and weekly sessions aren’t working out.
- If you would like to get away from it all AND rebuild your relationship.
A Couples Intensive is not recommended if:
- There is a current on-going affair.
- One or both partners has an active addiction which they are not ready to address.
- One partner is committed to ending the relationship (discernment counseling might be a better option).
- There is chronic intimate partner violence or abuse (couples counseling is not recommended, but individual therapy for each of you definitely IS).
Please reach out here to schedule a free consultation with me so we can determine if investing in a Couples Intensive with me is a good fit for you.
LOGISTICS & YOUR INVESTMENT
Registration
To begin the process with your partner, please schedule a free 20-minute Zoom consultation.
The consultation will allow us to determine if a Couples Intensive is a good fit for you at this time. If so, I can then share with you upcoming dates when I am available. Your dates will be reserved when you pay the deposit.
Cost
When you schedule a Couples Intensive, I block off two full work days on my calendar. I require a $1,000 deposit to reserve your dates. The financial investment for a 2 day session is $2,000. If you cancel less than 3 weeks before your scheduled Couples Intensive, you forfeit your deposit.
INTAKE FORMS
Online intake paperwork and assessments need to be completed at least one week prior to the intensive. This gives me a solid sense of who you are, what your individual and relationship strengths are, and where the challenges lie so we can maximize our time in the office together.
Aftercare and Follow Up Visits
After our counseling intensive concludes, I will write up a summary for you of the topics and themes we have covered, skills and processes we have worked on, and recommendations for you individually and a couple. This summary is something that you can each look back to over the months ahead as a map or guidepost as you build new pathways together.
I continue to see most couples on short-term basis – in person or via Telehealth – to continue to make adjustments and support the gains you’ve made in the Intensive. We can determine the frequency and length of follow up sessions based on your needs.
Your Retreat
Doing this deep work takes emotional and physical energy. Our time in the office is enhanced when couples use their time in the mornings and evenings to rejuvenate–separately or together. I recommend using this time as a full retreat: plan to be fully unplugged from work or other mentally taxing obligations, arrange to have someone stay with your children and stay elsewhere if at all possible, enjoy your meals, and seek out other activities that your find restful or energizing–depending on what you need.
welcome to bellingham
Hugging the Salish Sea and nearby Mt. Baker, Bellingham offers urban convenience and access to stunning natural features.
Check these hotel options. There are also lots of restful / fun vacation rentals within easy distance of the office. Look along Chuckanut Drive if you are going for the most stellar views. Here’s a few to get you started.
flying?
100 miles from Seattle (SeaTac); rent a car, or catch an Airporter Shuttle
68 miles from Everett (PAE); rent a car
Bellingham (BLI); rental cars are available, or you can plan to be mostly on foot and use ride shares or taxis to get to farther destinations.
Bellingham is a town full of culinary and ecological delights. Explore here or a few of my favorites below.
Eateries
within 1-2 miles of my office
Ambo Ethiopian
Bellingham Cider Company
Black Sheep Tacos
Brandywine*
Fiamma Burger*
Food Co Op deli*
La Fiamma Wood-Fired Pizza
Old Town Cafe–breakfast and lunch
Pepper Sisters
Soy House
Anthony’s
Lighthouse Bar and Grill*
Chrysalis*
*great for those with food allergies or sensitivities
Walks
Extensive greenspaces and trail system
Zuanich Point Park
walking, kites, great views of the bay and North Puget Sound
Elizabeth Park
easy walking distance from the office, free outdoor music on Thursday evenings in the summer
Boulevard Park
grab a drink or snack mid-walk at the Woods Coffee house or walk into Fairhaven for food or window shopping.
Larrabee State Park
tide pools, beach walks, forest hikes, Cleator Road overlook
Semiahmoo
walk on a spit looking across the ocean to either Mt. Baker (sidewalk) or the islands (beach side).
adventures
Galbraith mountain
biking, hiking, trail running
Way Point Park
bike pump track, sculptures, eateries
gear rentals
Rent a kayak, paddleboard, or small sailboat
Rent a bike
Community events
self care
Cascadia Massage
schedule ahead
Chrysalis spa
schedule ahead
Village Books
three storey independent bookstore with curios next door
Contact me
For questions about the process or availability, please reach out to me via email or schedule a free consultation here.
I prefer to meet with both partners at the same time. The purpose of a consultation is for us to meet, ask each other questions, and determine if I might be a good fit for your needs. This is also the place for you to share more personal information as needed. I strongly encourage you to schedule a free video consultation with me to avoid sending private information via email. Existing clients may message me through my confidential client portal.
shannon@madronarelationships.com
If you have an emergent need, please call 911, go directly to the nearest Emergency Department, or call your County Crisis Line or text the Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
Additional crisis lines can be found below:
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988
24-Hr Crisis Connections Line (Washington State): 866-427-4747
Trevor Lifeline (LGBTQIA+): 1-866-488-7386