How A Couples Retreat Can Save Your Marriage In One or Two Days
I encourage you to take a long, hard look at your marriage. Especially if you’ve been with your spouse for years.
Do people look at your relationship with envy because you’ve been together for so long? 10 years? 20 years? Longer?
The longevity of a relationship is great…as a testament to your commitment. But, it’s not always an accurate measurement of how your relationship is truly functioning. Or if you’re a happy couple.
In fact, couples often drift apart in their marriage as the years tick by. Schedules become busier (especially with kids or two careers!). Your interests change. You start to feel misunderstood. And you may not know how to navigate your differences.
Unfortunately, that can lead to either disconnection or an increase in arguments.
You might find yourself in shouting matches about things that weren’t issues before. Feeling unsupported, your work schedules, how to handle money, or setting bounties with your in-laws.
This growing apart can cause you both to feel lonely. And sometimes it opens the door to infidelity . In fact, it can break down your marriage completely.
The good news? It can be fixed.
You can connect again, discover how to have difficult conversations, and create a happy and secure relationship.
The Two-Day Couples Retreat Alternative
It might sound gimmicky or like some kind of sales pitch to suggest that you can save your marriage in two days.
But listen up. For many couples, a one or two-day Couples Retreat (AKA: Marriage Intensive) is the best possible solution to saving a struggling relationship. In fact, an immersive couples retreat can be a much better choice than going to traditional weekly marriage counseling.
See, when you attend a weekly 50-minute marriage counseling session, the first few sessions are usually spent digging into background information. A marriage therapist will want to learn about your family of origin, your spouse’s family background, and the history of your relationship.
By the time you get around to working on the problems that led you to therapy, several weeks will have already gone by.
Plus, many people that start going to couples counseling, have a hard time opening up right away. So, it might not be until the end of a 50-minute counseling session that you’d finally feel comfortable opening up about your most vulnerable thoughts and feelings. By that time, the session would almost be over.
Before I started offering Couples Retreats and full-day sessions, I would often feel the frustration of having to end the session in the middle of something profound. Or worse yet, when a couple was in an argument and there was no time left to help them shift into resolution.
Why a Couples Retreat Works
A retreat works as a great alternative to marriage counseling because it enables you to jump into all the issues you’re struggling with right away.
Instead of analyzing and over-thinking every single problem in your relationship (and where it stemmed from), a retreat focuses on what you can do to fix those problems, fast.
When you’re forced to complete something in a short amount of time, several helpful things happen.
Create Goals
First, with my help, you’ll be creating goals for yourself—short-term and long-term. You’ll come up with goals for the two-day retreat and you’ll create goals for your relationship as you move forward.
One of the rewarding things about creating these goals is that you’ll see some of them come to life before the end of the retreat.
You’ll know in your bones that you and your spouse can accomplish mutual objectives together. And that will fuel your motivation to work on long-term goals after you go home.
Build Skills
Additionally, an intensive two-day marriage counseling process will equip you with the skills, tools, and agreements you need to rebuild your marriage.
Of course, every marriage is different. But, when relationships start to fall apart, there are typically some common culprits.
You and your partner are likely to have trouble communicating, making time for one another, maintaining a deep sense of connection, and taking the risk to speak up about what you really think and desire.
Whatever the issues are that you’re struggling with, the solution is likely to include a skill that needs to be built or shored up.
Make Decisions
Finally, a two-day retreat allows you to discuss decisions for your future with a new set of communication skills that actually work.
You won’t walk away from the retreat with the uncertainty you feel now. You’ll have new information and the necessary skills to make serious, important, and impactful changes in your life and marriage.
If you’re interested in learning more about a Couples Retreat in Denver, or what it can do for your marriage, feel free to contact me for more information.