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Intensive Marriage Retreat for a Stronger Relationship

An intensive marriage retreat with Couples Retreat offers concentrated, private time to address what weekly counseling often cannot. Led solely by Andrew Sofin, each intensive serves one couple at a time, with structure and pace shaped entirely by your relationship.
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Why Intensity Helps Couples

An intensive couples therapy retreat removes the momentum loss that weekly sessions often create. When days pass between appointments, old patterns reassert and progress stalls. An intensive marriage retreat compresses that work into consecutive, uninterrupted days where both partners stay inside the process long enough for real change to take hold. The setting is chosen to support focus, away from daily distractions and obligations. With 25 years of clinical experience, Andrew Sofin guides the work with continuity no weekly cadence can replicate.

Learn How The Retreat Works

Why Intensity Helps Couples

An intensive couples therapy retreat removes the momentum loss that weekly sessions often create. When days pass between appointments, old patterns reassert and progress stalls. An intensive marriage retreat compresses that work into consecutive, uninterrupted days where both partners stay inside the process long enough for real change to take hold. The setting is chosen to support focus, away from daily distractions and obligations. With 25 years of clinical experience, Andrew Sofin guides the work with continuity no weekly cadence can replicate.

Learn How The Retreat Works

Who Marriage Intensive Is For

A marriage intensive suits couples in acute distress, those facing a significant decision about the future of their relationship, or partners who have tried weekly therapy without lasting progress. It also serves couples who value complete privacy and want to work without the presence of other clients. Either partner can begin considering it without the other feeling pressured. Many couples arrive with one partner more ready than the other, and the format accounts for that imbalance without forcing either side.

How Your Days Unfold

An intensive couples therapy retreat runs over consecutive days, with morning sessions focused on the couple and afternoon sessions dedicated to individual work. Formats span from a shorter intensive of a few days to an extended engagement of five or more. Sessions run as long as the clinical work requires rather than stopping at a fixed hour. Only one couple is present at any time. The length and pace are confirmed during the intake, tailored to fit your relationship’s specific needs.
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Your Private Clinical Intake

Before an intensive begins, a private clinical intake takes place with Andrew Sofin. This is not a brief questionnaire. It is a direct, confidential conversation where both partners share their history, concerns, and what they hope the work will address. The intake shapes every aspect of the plan, from the first session’s focus to the overall pacing of the days. By the time you arrive, the clinician already understands your dynamic. That preparation is what makes the intensive genuinely personal.

Aftercare and Ongoing Support

The intensive does not end when you leave. Before departure, an aftercare plan is developed that outlines how to sustain and build on what you accomplished. This may include continued conversations with Andrew Sofin, structured practices to maintain at home, and guidance on navigating the first weeks back in daily life. Growth continues after you return. Having a documented plan in place helps both partners carry the work forward with clarity and confidence rather than relying on memory alone.
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Aftercare and Ongoing Support

The intensive does not end when you leave. Before departure, an aftercare plan is developed that outlines how to sustain and build on what you accomplished. This may include continued conversations with Andrew Sofin, structured practices to maintain at home, and guidance on navigating the first weeks back in daily life. Growth continues after you return. Having a documented plan in place helps both partners carry the work forward with clarity and confidence rather than relying on memory alone.
Speak with Andrew Sofin

What Couples Often Experience

Many couples describe the intensive as the first time they truly heard each other in years. Conversations that previously escalated begin to reach understanding. Trust that felt broken starts to rebuild, and emotional closeness often returns before physical reconnection follows. These shifts are not guaranteed. Each couple’s experience depends on their own dynamic and willingness to engage. What the intensive provides is the structure, time, and clinical guidance for meaningful change to become possible within a concentrated period.

Couples Retreat With Andrew Sofin

Every intensive at Couples Retreat is led personally by Andrew Sofin (MA, RP, TCF, RMFT), current president of the Canadian Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and Visiting Professor at the University of Guelph. With more than 25 years of clinical experience, he works with one couple at a time. There is no team of rotating therapists, no group sessions, and no other couples present. From the initial intake through aftercare, the same clinician stays with you throughout the entire process.

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frequently asked questions

What is an intensive marriage retreat?
An intensive marriage retreat is a private, concentrated engagement where a couple works with one clinician over consecutive days to address the core patterns affecting their relationship. It is not a group program or a vacation with counseling added. The format provides sustained, uninterrupted time that weekly sessions cannot replicate. At Couples Retreat, every intensive is led by Andrew Sofin, who tailors the work to each couple’s history and goals through a confidential clinical intake before arrival.
The intensive runs over consecutive days, with formats ranging from a shorter engagement of a few days to an extended experience of five or more. The right length depends on the couple’s clinical needs and goals, which are discussed during the confidential intake before arrival. Session length within each day is guided by what the work requires rather than a fixed schedule. Whether a couple chooses a shorter or longer format, the structure adapts to serve the relationship rather than a template.
Yes. Many couples begin the process when only one partner feels ready. The intensive is designed to give both partners space to engage honestly, without either feeling cornered or pressured. Ambivalence does not disqualify a couple from the work. It simply means the starting point is acknowledged openly. Andrew Sofin works with the dynamic as it is, not as it ideally would be. The format respects each partner’s pace, and readiness often develops once the process begins in a safe environment.
Intensive marriage counseling compresses what might take months of weekly appointments into consecutive days of focused work. Weekly sessions typically last around 50 minutes, with gaps that can slow momentum and allow old patterns to return. An intensive removes those gaps. Partners stay inside the process for sustained periods, building on each session without the reset that weekly intervals often create. The format does not replace weekly counseling. It offers a different structure for couples who need concentrated, uninterrupted clinical time.
A marriage intensive addresses the patterns most couples struggle with: communication breakdown, recurring conflict, trust and intimacy difficulties, emotional disconnection, and the weight of major decisions about the future of the relationship. The specific focus is shaped by a confidential clinical intake completed before arrival, so the work is tailored to your dynamic rather than applied from a general template. Andrew Sofin approaches each issue with clinical empathy, meeting both partners where they are without judgment or predetermined assumptions.
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