Intensive Couples Therapy

Why Standard Therapy Falls Short

A lot of couples therapy gives you 50 minutes, which is long enough to settle in, catch up on the week, and get near the real issue before the hour ends and someone says you will pick it up next week. By then the heat is gone, and the pattern is back in the kitchen. A 90-minute session is long enough to reach the issue under the story, work the interaction while it is happening, practice a different response before you log off, and leave with a specific practice for home.

The Case for Longer Sessions

Couples therapy is two people and a pattern with a history, so the session has to be long enough to get past the recap, and a 50-minute hour often ends as the useful part starts. Longer sessions mean more gets done each time we meet, because you can try the new response before you leave, and how long therapy takes still depends on the work you do between sessions. We generally start weekly so the change has a place to land, and as those changes stick, we space the sessions out.

What Intensive Sessions Look Like

There is a shape to the 90 minutes, and it is not a minute-by-minute script. We start with what happened since last time, stay with the interaction long enough for it to matter, and end with what you will practice at home, which I will ask about next time. Regular sessions are on Zoom. I am licensed in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, and you need to be physically in one of those states during the session.

Who Benefits Most

Ninety-minute sessions tend to fit busy professionals who need early morning, evening, or weekend times and can still start weekly, couples in a painful stretch who need one sitting long enough for the conversation to land, partners who travel as long as each of you is physically in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, or Rhode Island, and couples who already tried therapy and lost the point when the 50-minute hour ran out. Hard problems, including infidelity and a major life change, need that room. If you or your partner are in crisis or unsafe, call or text 988, or call 911, because this is not a crisis service.

See also: infidelity recovery in Fairfield County.

If a weekly Zoom slot will not hold the work, a weekend intensive is a separate option, with uninterrupted time in a place you choose, in a state where I am licensed, and the length and fee in a written proposal. A weekend is not a promise that the relationship is finished.

Investment

Ninety-minute sessions are $750. I do not accept insurance, and I can give you a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement. A $100 consultation is applied toward your first session, and I refund the fee if I am not the right fit.

Read more

• FAQs on fees, scheduling, and what sessions are like
• Weekend intensives, when a weekly session will not hold the work