Couples Intensives
in Blackheath Village & Online
Uninterrupted time to work on your relationship
A couples intensive is an extended period of couples therapy with one of our experienced therapists, offered as a half-day, a full day or three days. Intensives take place in person at our practice in Blackheath Village, Southeast London, online, or internationally, with your therapist travelling to you. They bring many hours of therapy together, so that you can work on what is happening in your relationship without having to stop every fifty minutes and wait a week to continue.
Why choose an intensive rather than weekly therapy?
Weekly couples therapy works well for many people, and we offer it at Heathwell. An intensive offers something different, and for some couples it is a better fit.
Conversations don’t have to stop halfway
In weekly therapy, a session often ends just as something important comes up. You go home with the conversation still open, and it can easily turn into an argument or be avoided until next time. In an intensive, your therapist can stay with that conversation until you have both been properly heard.
You can get beneath the recurring argument
With several hours together, there is time to understand what lies underneath the arguments you keep having, rather than repeating them in a slightly different form each week.
You can try something different with support
Your therapist can help you practise saying something difficult, or slow a conversation down as it starts to escalate. This is very different from being given advice and then trying it alone at home.
Uninterrupted time allows you to go deeper
Stepping away from work, children and the demands of daily life gives you the space to focus fully on each other. Without the usual distractions, couples often reach a depth of conversation that is hard to find in a fifty-minute session squeezed into a busy week. For couples with demanding careers or international lives, it can also be far easier to set aside a day or a few days than to keep a regular weekly appointment.
When might an intensive be right for you?
After a crisis in the relationship
The discovery of an affair, a serious breach of trust or a sudden rupture can leave couples needing focused support quickly, rather than waiting for weekly sessions to build momentum.
When the same conflict keeps returning
If you have been having the same arguments for months or years, an intensive gives you time to understand what keeps them going and to begin responding to each other differently.
When you are questioning the future of the relationship
If one or both of you are unsure whether to stay together, an intensive offers dedicated time to think this through carefully and honestly, with support.
When weekly therapy hasn’t gone deep enough
Some couples have tried therapy before and felt it never quite reached the heart of the problem. Longer, uninterrupted time can make it easier to get there.
When weekly sessions are hard to fit into your life
Demanding careers, young children, frequent travel or living in different countries can make a regular appointment difficult to keep. Setting aside a day or a few days is often more realistic.
Alongside ongoing therapy
An intensive can also be used to focus closely on one difficulty within longer-term couples therapy, whether with us or with another therapist.
You don’t need to see the problem the same way, or feel equally sure about the relationship. What matters is that you are both willing to take part and to think honestly about your own part in what happens between you.
Areas we work with in couples intensives
Infidelity, betrayal and rebuilding trust
An intensive gives you a supported setting to talk through what happened in full, understand its impact and begin considering what rebuilding trust would require from each of you.
Recurring arguments and unresolved conflict
With several hours together, there is time to slow down the arguments you keep having, see how they escalate and understand what lies underneath them.
Emotional distance and longstanding resentment
When couples have grown apart over years, it can take more than fifty minutes to reach what has gone unsaid. An intensive allows time for those conversations to unfold at their own pace.
Neurodivergent and mixed neurotype relationships
Where one or both partners are neurodivergent, including with ADHD or autism, misunderstandings can build up around communication, attention, routine and household responsibilities. An intensive allows time to understand how each of you experiences the relationship and to find ways of working together that suit you both.
Intimacy and sexual difficulties
Changes in desire, intimacy or sexual connection can be difficult to talk about. An intensive offers an unhurried space to approach these conversations with care.
Deciding whether to stay together or separate
If you are unsure about the future of your relationship, an intensive gives you dedicated time to think this through honestly, whatever the outcome.
Cross-cultural and international relationships
Differences in culture, language, family expectations or where you call home can shape a relationship in ways that are not always easy to see. An intensive allows time to explore these differences and what they mean for each of you.
Parenting pressures and changes in family life
The arrival of children, blended families or children leaving home can change a relationship significantly. An intensive can help you understand how these changes have affected you as a couple.
Relationships affected by demanding careers
When work leaves little time or energy for each other, problems can go unaddressed for long periods. An intensive makes it possible to give the relationship focused attention without fitting therapy into an already full week.
Major life transitions
Relocation, illness, bereavement, retirement and other significant changes can unsettle even a strong relationship. An intensive gives you time to understand how the transition has affected you both and what you need from each other now.
We work with couples of all backgrounds, cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities and relationship structures.
We can come to you
For couples living outside the UK, or whose work and family commitments make travel to London difficult, our therapists can travel to you for your intensive.
Where we work
We work with couples across Europe and further afield, including Switzerland, Monaco, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates.
Planning the details
Your therapist will talk through practical arrangements during the consultation, including where the work will take place and how the days will be structured.
Travel costs
Travel and accommodation costs are charged in addition to the intensive fee.
International Couples Intensives
Meet our Couples Therapists Who Offer Couples Intensives
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Marina O'Connor
COUPLES & RELATIONSHIP THERAPIST
Approach: Transactional Analysis and Relational Life Therapy
Availability: Online
Specialisms: Neurodivergent & Mixed Neurotype Relationships, High Conflict Couples, Leadership & High-Performing Couples, Intercultural Relationships, Infidelity Recovery
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Elena Miari
RELATIONSHIP THERAPIST & PSYCHOTHERAPIST
Approach: Existential & Integrative
Availability: In person & Online
Specialisms: Infidelity, Narcissistic Abuse, Relational Trauma, Betrayal, ADHD, Couples Counselling
