5 Essential Tips for Planning a Successful Couples Therapy Retreat
You’re ready to fix your relationship, you’re motivated to change, and you just can’t stand the distance between you anymore.
Meet Couples Therapy Retreats.
You might have looked into a couples retreat in California or couples therapy near you. But maybe couples therapists near you have long waitlists or are only able to see you once every 6 weeks.
That isn’t enough for you to see the changes you want to see in your relationship! Or maybe the couples therapists near you only focus on couples in crisis and you’re not exactly in that place. You just want to feel like you and your partner are best friends again. But you need more than a nice vacation.
At Inland Empire Couples Counseling, we have a solution for you! Couples therapy retreats are a combination of a relationship retreat and couple’s counseling, and allow you to dig deep and make real change quickly.
We’ve curated 5 tips to help you prepare for your couples retreat in California! So, contact us today to get started. We provide couples therapy in Murrieta, CA, Riverside, CA, and the Temecula Valley. As well as online couples counseling to residents of California.
Tip #1: Find Childcare
We know that you love your kids and enjoy having them around but sometimes we need undivided attention from our partner and for us to connect with each other alone. Our biggest advice during your retreat with us is to have the kids go to a trusted family member or friends house for the 24-48 hours that you are with us for your retreat. Even if you plan to stay home and forego staying at a hotel, having the kids out of the home gives your relationship that uninterrupted time to connect and focus on each other.
Tip #2: Come well-rested for your couples retreat
We get that coming in well rested may be tough to do, especially if you are swamped with all of your responsibilities including kids, work, etc. (hash tag – adulting). We also know that you are most likely already making big sacrifices with your time to be available for a two-day retreat. So we aren’t asking that you take extra time to prepare but we highly recommend that this retreat does not follow a big (or out of the ordinary) taxing or stressful week with those adult responsibilities. If you or your partner come into the retreat already overworked and feeling empty, emotions may run higher than normal from being so tired and you may also feel like you have no energy left to give to the relationship. So if possible, plan your time leading up to the retreat in a way that will give you enough mental and emotional strength to be able to work on the relationship.
Tip #3: Have an open heart
We know that signing up for this couple’s retreat might feel a little scary. Maybe you’ve never been to couple’s therapy or maybe you’ve never gone to a retreat and so you have no idea what to expect. You also might be feeling discouraged with where your relationship has been and doubt that this might actually help or move your relationship in a positive direction. It makes sense that you would feel this way, especially if the relationship has been struggling for so long, and also – we believe that we can help. With that, we encourage you to have an open heart and see what may come from your time with us, we’d love to surprise you!
Tip #4: Be ready to try something new in your couples retreat
During your time with us, we will be asking you and your partner to try new things. This may mean getting you and your partner out of your comfort zone and trying new skills that may feel awkward at first. Part of the reason you will need to try new things is simply because your old ways or current relationship skills are not working and so we need to try something else. We cannot expect a different result if we keep doing the same thing, so be ready to learn and try something new!
Tip #5: Let’s have fun!
During our time together there will be plenty of time to be serious, to cry, to struggle, and to work hard – but let’s not forget to include the element that most likely brought you two together – having fun! When you and your partner can play together and have fun you will feel more connected. Fun fact: When you feel more connected with your partner, it will be easier to manage conflict together when you can remember that you are also friends!
A two day intensive couples therapy retreat can be a powerful tool for improving relationships. By offering intense, focused work and a change of scenery, couples therapy retreats can help couples make significant progress in a short amount of time and gain a deeper understanding and connection with each other. Whether you're looking to work through specific issues, gain a new perspective, or simply spend quality time together, a couples therapy retreat can help you achieve your goals and grow in ways you never thought possible.
At Inland Empire Couples Counseling we offer the best marriage counseling we can! Our couples therapists are trained in helping couples heal from infidelity, substance use in relationships, childhood trauma, communication skills, as well as providing the LGBTQIA+ community with pride counseling. We have online couples counseling in California. We have couples therapy in Riverside, CA. We also have marriage counseling in Murrieta CA or the Temecula Valley. Please reach out for help by clicking the button below to schedule a free 15 minute consultation with our Intake Coordinator. Have questions about couples counseling? Visit our FAQs page to find out more.
