You can feel closer, faster.

Experience months of therapy in 1-3 days.

Does it feel like weekly 50 minute therapy simply hasn’t been enough to help get your relationship back?

  • You might have felt that something deeper has yet to change in your therapy sessions. You’re disappointed because you’ve been trying to put in the work but it feels like you simply don’t have enough time in the 50-minute session model. As soon as you get into a topic, it’s time to start wrapping up, so you often feel scared to even bring anything up.

  • Perhaps you’ve been meaning to get into weekly therapy for a while now, but your schedule has been so busy and demanding that a weekly therapy appointment feels more overwhelming than supportive, more like another thing you have to do than something you want to do. Not to mention you might sit on a waitlist for weekly therapy for weeks or months in order to get in with a therapist you actually connect with.

  • Maybe you’re needing help right now, and you don’t want to spend months or even years in the traditional weekly model of therapy treatment to feel better.

  • Or you’re a couple new to therapy and you’re ready to dive in and get to work right away.

You want couples therapy that actually works.

You’re so tired of putting the time and effort into weekly therapy and not yet experiencing meaningful, lasting results.

You feel like you’ve tried and tried, and you’re ready to try something totally different to improve your relationship.

A Relationship Intensive can help with…

  • Understanding your own responses to emotions, how you handle them, and how you communicate them.

  • Understanding how your partner responds, manages, and communicates their emotions.

  • Learning what one another is really trying to communicate.

  • Experiencing a positive shift in interactional patterns.

  • Creating a secure bond between partners.

  • Feeling like your partner is more emotionally available, responsive, and engaged.

A therapy intensive is like getting the VIP experience - you get access to special, more flexible scheduling; you get to skip the lines of traditional therapy waitlists; and you’re able to accelerate your reconnection.

Relationship Intensive FAQs

  • Intensives are designed to support your preferred schedule and timeline for your treatment goals. They allow the opportunity to progress through your relationship concerns in a more succinct and focused way without the interruptions of the traditional 50-minute session.

    Instead of meeting once a week or every other week for less than an hour, we’d meet for several hours over the span of 1-3 days (see the FAQs for sample schedules).

    An intensive format may decrease overall treatment time because of time not spent on checking in at the beginning of each session and trying to remember what you’ve worked on and what’s gone well/not well in-between sessions. You’ll get more time to really dive into what’s going on between you and your partner so you can more intentionally work towards changing your pattern of conflict and disconnection.

    Ultimately, you get more traction in less time.

  • Before we get into the intensive (the part where you’ll engage in processing), you’ll both complete some assessments on your relationship patterns and concerns. This will give me a chance to prepare for our work together, having a better understanding of where you two have been and how you want to move forward. I’ll also make some recommendations for some reading material so that you can prepare yourself for the types of conversations we’ll be having in my relational framework, and you'll complete parts of a customized workbook to develop helpful skills in advance of the intensive.

    During the intensive, we simultaneously work on decreasing the pain you’re feeling while also increasing your ability to connect with one another. We do this with experiential processing of what cycle the two of you get stuck in during points of conflict. I’ll help you both to reflect and expand on what happens for you internally that leads to feelings of disconnection and hurt in the relationship. I’ll then work with you to find different ways of communicating with one another so that you feel more able to have a more stable, connected relationship.

    I will teach you about relationship dynamics, communication skills, and attachment throughout the process to further your skills to communicate and connect.

    As we near the end of the intensive, we’ll discuss what the next steps are for you (e.g., getting you connected to a therapist for weekly sessions, scheduling a follow up intensive, etc.). We’ll reflect on what you processed and learned, what was meaningful to you, and how you let these new insights and shifts permeate into more of your relationship moving forward.

    You'll leave with your workbook full of skills and information to remain connected moving forward, building a foundation for further growth independently or under the care of continued couples therapy.

    • You want to experience deep therapeutic work that can change your relationship quickly.

    • You are planning for a break (babymoon, break from work, etc.) where you want to focus on deepening your connection with one another.

    • You have done couples therapy before and found it helpful for understanding your partner.

    • You want to prepare yourself for a big life event (a wedding, moving somewhere new, having a baby, etc.).

    • You already go to weekly therapy and you feel stuck or on the verge of a break through. You may want to do an intensive as a supplement to your weekly therapy.

What does a Relationship Intensive include?

Intake w/ Couple (60 minutes)

We’ll start by reviewing where you’re looking to shift and receive support and identify what exactly we’ll be working on during the Intensive.

Two Individual Sessions (60 minutes each)

I’ll meet one-on-one with each of you to talk through your personal and relationship history.

Extended Couples Sessions

Each couples session after the intake are scheduled for 2 hours at a time. Check out the FAQ section for a sample schedule.

Breaks!

It’s very normal to get fatigued in an extended therapy experience. We’ll be sure to take plenty of breaks throughout the Intensive.

Investment & Program Information

Our typical relationship intensive is 2 days, with 9 hours of therapy across the two days. However, our program is flexible and allows for adaptation to your specific goals and needs in your relationship. Intensives for couples start at $1,799 and are adjusted based on specific scheduling needs (weekends vs weekdays, evenings, etc.) and your specific customized program, including number of hours of therapy. I will give you a specific estimate once I understand what type of program may be most suited for you.

**Ongoing intensive therapy is available if you are wanting longer-term support or prefer to work intensively on a more consistent basis.

How is intensive therapy more cost effective and time efficient than weekly therapy?

Weekly therapy typically includes:

  • 10-15 minutes of checking in from the last session

  • 20-30 minutes of processing

  • 10-15 minutes of closing the session

You might spend a month on only the intake process (couples intake, 2 individual sessions, and returning as a couple for 1 session), costing almost $550 for the 4 weekly therapy sessions, before you’ve even gotten to processing. By the time another month passes, you’ve already invested over $1,000.

But realistically, stuff comes up between sessions you may want to discuss, you may not want to work on processing deep stuff the next session (you might be tired, there might be a more pressing current issue, you may know you have to return to work after, or it may feel just feel too big to open up again and again), and the focus of your session week-to-week might shift significantly, extending your time to reach your goals.

So you might actually be in weekly therapy for multiple months ($550 for X number of months) and still not feel fully resolved in the thing bringing you in now.

Intensive therapy typically includes:

  • 60-minute couples intake

  • 2 60-minute individual intakes

  • 6 hours of couples processing

You might fully shift one or multiple issues within only a couple of days, costing around $1,800. You’ll be able to stay in the conversation for longer, without feeling the need to wrap up to leave without being in the middle of the mess or being afraid it’ll spark a fight once you’re alone—and you won’t get distracted by life’s events on the way there.

You’ll feel more confident bringing up the real problems, because you’ll know you have the time to deep dive, get to the root, and have my guidance to navigate your way to reconnection. You won’t have to leave feeling raw and hoping you can make it to the next week, hoping a new fight doesn’t come up in the meantime. Plus, you won’t have to keep taking time off of work or paying for childcare to attend your sessions every week, hoping you can balance both of your schedules with mine.

Overall, you’ll feel better sooner, utilize less money on complicating factors (child care, time lost at work, etc.), and spend less on therapy as a whole.

Your relationship could change over only two days.

Disclaimers

Intensives are not for every couple.

As you consider an intensive, keep these things in mind:

  • Couples in which one or both partners have an active addiction are not candidates for the intensive.

  • If there is an ongoing affair - the intensive is not an option.

  • If you and your partner do not have the same goal for therapy, this isn't a good format for you. An intensive isn't the place to decide if you want to work on the relationship—it’s a place to intentionally and deeply work on your relationship. When a couple has the same goal, an intensive can be very rewarding.

  • If being in the same room for a long time is too triggering or you haven't been able to be in the same space while remaining civil in a period of time - this format may not be productive.

  • If there is active intimate partner violence, the intensive is not an option. Please visit this site for more information about intimate partner violence.

If after reading these exclusion points, you're unsure if you're a good fit for the intensive, please contact me. I’m happy to help assess if this is a good time for you to engage in this format of therapy. If it's not, I’m also happy to help you find resources for other help.

As with any psychotherapy, results are not guaranteed.

If you are coming from out of town, all ethical and legal guidelines for providing services are under the therapist’s license in the state of Tennessee (includes but is not limited to HIPAA, confidentiality, reporting abuse, etc). Allegations or evidence of abuse is to be reported both in the state that you reside and possibly in TN (where services are provided).

FAQs About Relationship Intensives

  • This is a fast-pass, premium service. As such, higher fees are charged as they require more work, energy, and schedule flexibility.

    Intensives also provide more value for clients.

    *Fees are subject to change if adding or removing additional hours to the intensive day(s). Scheduling during certain time periods also may affect your overall program cost.

    2-Day Intensive | $1,799

    After booking, I will hold the dates for your intensive for one week. By that time, I need completion of your paperwork in the client portal or your dates will be released. You will be charged a non-refundable deposit for half the amount of your total intensive cost. You'll need to complete your workbook pages at least one week in advance of your program date.

  • It depends. Many insurance companies (typically PPOs) reimburse a portion of the cost of psychotherapy. For insurance purposes, I am considered an out-of-network provider.

    It's best to determine the exact details of your policy ahead of time, including what benefits are available regarding out-of-network providers and if your insurance will reimburse several hours of therapy in one day or one week.

    I recommend calling the customer service number on the back of your insurance card in order to get details about your specific plan.

    Please know that the insurance company requires a diagnosis code as a reason for treatment. Not all couples who can benefit from a therapy Intensive meet criteria for a reimbursable diagnosis.

    If you would like, I will provide you with a Superbill for all direct contact therapy services included in the program.

    I’m happy to provide more information to help with this process. Mentaya is a resource I partner with to provide assistance with out-of-network submission and reimbursement. You can learn more here.

  • Exact scheduling can be determined at the time of booking and is flexible depending on how the intensive is going (e.g., if longer breaks are needed, you'd like to split sessions across multiple days, etc.). Those who are interested in getting part of the Intensive reimbursed through out-of-network insurance benefits may also schedule the intake and individual sessions on different days.

    Example 2-Day Intensive

    (First Day)

    9-10am intake

    10-11am individual session

    11am-12pm individual session

    12-1pm BREAK

    1-3pm session

    (Day Two)

    10am-12pm session

    12-2pm BREAK

    2-4pm session

  • In addition to understanding and learning to interrupt your current negative cycle, you’ll get a chance to dive even deeper into unmet attachment needs that may be present in your relationship. And you’ll learn even more about how the things your partner does is often in service of protecting themself and/or the relationship. Forming this deeper level of connection helps you to feel more connected, emotionally safe, and secure.

    Intensive sessions are similar to going on a personal retreat. It’s best to allow time outside of sessions to be unscheduled or filled only with self-care activities like exercise, body work (acupuncture or massage), and creative expression – drawing, painting, cooking, journaling, etc.

  • ntensives can be scheduled online or in-person. Please note I can only work with you if you are in the states of Tennessee, Colorado, or Florida.

    My office is located in Ooltewah, TN, minutes from Chattanooga, TN and North GA. There are multiple options for accommodations and dining if you are coming from out of town.

  • You just need to be in a state I'm licensed in at the time of your session for me to work with you. If you are out of state, you can travel to Tennessee, Colorado, or Florida for the intensive. Some couples like traveling for the intensive as it adds to the experience of having a get-away to purely focus on the relationship (and there are lots of new date ideas in a new place to further your connection).

  • We’ll start with an email consultation and a 20 minute phone chat so that we can see how we connect and whether an intensive is a good fit for your relationship.

    If so, we’ll get your Intensive scheduled, and I’ll send your treatment paperwork to be completed within one week and your customized workbook to be completed before your intensive.