Experience Healing and Reconnection in a Relationship Intensive
What is a Relationship Intensive?
Intensive, focused therapy is the equivalent of months of regular couples therapy and focuses on current distress in a way which helps to reassess, strengthen or restore the attachment bond between you and your partner.
Relationship Intensives are thoughtfully scheduled over 12, 14 or 16 hours, and take place over 3 – 4 days. This allows us to focus on current distress in a way which helps to reassess, strengthen, or restore the attachment bond between you and your partner.
Please note that Intensive, focused therapy is the equivalent of months of regular couples therapy and Yve will be available throughout the course of your Intensive.
Yve often works in the Intensive format with therapists, health, mental health, leadership, and mentoring professionals and their partners who are often pressed to find the time they need to work on their own precious relationships.
Is a Relationship Intensive Right for You?
A Relationship Intensive approach may assist in these instances:
- When you recognise negative patterns in your relationship and seek a deeper exploration
- When you desire enhanced understanding and closeness in your relationship
- Following a crisis or period of distress in your relationship
When to Reconsider Relationship Intensives
A Couples Intensive may not be appropriate in the following scenarios:
- In the presence of unresolved addictions or ongoing affairs
- If there is an element of coercive control or unaddressed interpersonal violence
This therapy focuses on the strength of the emotional bond between the couple. I have worked with many people with OCD and other formal diagnoses – and still the focus is on understanding the patterns of relating and coping over time and ALWAYS comes back to holding the attachment meaning and understanding. I am also very experienced and respectful of those of us with trauma, especially around attachment.
- Yve Gould on Relationship Intensive Programs
Relationships Intensive Tips
- Settle in early. Yve encourages you to arrive the afternoon before the program begins, allowing you to settle in, unwind from your journey, and prepare for this unique, shared experience.
- Embrace this opportunity as a retreat. Even if you are a local resident, arrange for childcare and work coverage, enabling you to concentrate on nurturing your relationship without external distractions.
- This is your time. Use the time between sessions to reflect on the material, take a beach walk, enjoy a massage, soak in a hot pool, walk around the Mount, or simply rest and rejuvenate. Focus on you and your relationship.
So, Where To From Here?
If you believe Relationship Intensives may help you, please email me. We will then work through the following steps:
- We will schedule to Meet Up online over Zoom to discuss your needs at this stage in your relationship. During this free consultation, program costs and availability will be discussed. Note: some subsidised places are available, so please discuss your needs with Yve.
- We will schedule a 90-minute Pre-Intensive Assessment session. Both partners complete Intensive Intake documents.
- If we decide on an Intensive, this is then scheduled and booked as required. A 50% deposit will be required to secure your booking with the remainder payable at the time of your Intensive.
- An initial treatment plan is established. This is reviewed at the end of the Intensive and Yve provides a plan with follow-up strategies and homework.
Watch this quick intro from Yve now!
Preparatory Reading
As part of the Pre-Intensive program, each partner needs to read or listen to Hold Me Tight by Dr Sue Johnson. You will also need to purchase An Emotionally Focused Workbook for Couples: The Two of Us by Kallos-Lilly & Fitzgerald.
Hold Me Tight: Your Guide to the Most Successful Approach to Building Loving Relationships
Dr Sue Johnson, 2011
Hold Me Tight by Dr Sue Johnson is a transformative guide for couples seeking to deepen their emotional connection and create a more secure and loving relationship through the seven conversations of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). It helps partners explore their emotional vulnerabilities, heal from past hurts, and build a more intimate and fulfilling bond.
Veronica Kallos-Lilly and Jennifer Fitzgerald, 2014
An Emotionally Focused Workbook for Couples: The Two of Us by Veronica Kallos-Lilly and Jennifer Fitzgerald is a comprehensive guide designed for couples seeking to enhance their emotional connection and overcome relationship distress.
Make Love Work: A Practical Guide to Relationship Success
Nic Beets, 2023
This very readable book is written by Kiwi therapist Nic Beets.
Insightful, practical and inspiring… required reading for anyone in or venturing into a relationship.
– Jennifer Ward-Lealand, actor and intimacy coordinator.
We all want to make the most of our relationship. We hope it will be the center of joy and satisfaction in our life. Yet so often we end up hurt, frustrated or resentful.
If you’ve wondered why your relationship has stalled or why you find intimate partnerships so hard; why you behave the way you do or why you can’t make sense of what your partner does, Make Love Work explains it all.
It gives you the tools you need to be successful in love – from preventing your insecurities and neurobiology from wrecking your relationship to being a team player and handling conflict well.
There are practical strategies for handling common areas of stress: fairness, sex and intimacy, parenting, money and setting boundaries. Plus, excellent advice on the really tough issues: infidelity, abuse, major stresses, loss and grief.
Post-Intensive Follow-up
Depending on your needs as a couple, a 2-hour follow-up session on Zoom with Yve is scheduled for 2-4 weeks after the Intensive.
Yve is not available for weekly couples therapy, however the homework you receive for your own work as a couple between sessions is of major benefit in ensuring that the change process you are in is successful and lasting. Follow-up planning will also include useful material for you to take back to your individual therapist.
If you require additional weekly support from a Couples Therapist, Yve will assist with referral. If you are already working with a couple’s therapist, we can build in some time to consult with them, if required.
Reflections on Relationships Intensives
The intensive process was well worth the time and financial investment. I was surprised at how much progress we made so quickly.
Honestly, it saved our marriage
Yve is amazing, she has a warmth and openness which makes you feel very comfortable but also keeps the process moving forward and focused on the deeper/underlying issues rather than surface issues.
