California Couples Retreat

A couples retreat is intentional one-on-one time for you and your partner to meet your relationship goals. A lot of transformation can occur when you can fully focus on your relationships without distractions.

Where To Go as a Couple in California?

California is a massive state, offering just about everything from beaches to mountains, from busy cities to quiet sanctuaries. Where you go shouldn’t matter as much as what you do there. As a couple, you should set your intentions. A couples therapy retreat Can be intensive, often involving all-day sessions. It’s important to have free time where you’re able to simply enjoy each other, and reap the benefits of the work you’ve made in your sessions.

You can choose your destination by considering the values you share as a couple. Brianstorm activities that help you both unwind. Maybe that’s hiking, or maybe it’s lying on the couch.

Benefits of a Couples Retreat

A couples retreat is much more than just a vacation away. It’s about allowing intentional space for reflection, learning, and reconnection.

Some of the main benefits of a couples retreat include:

Improved intimacy and connection: Many couples experience their intimacy and connection diminishing over time. Dedicated time in a couples retreat is the ideal setting to reconnect and reignite passion. The combination of time off in a beautiful environment and focused exercises and discussions can bring you to a new level of understanding intimacy.

Professional support: Most retreats, like those offered by The Couples Center, are led by licensed therapists. Instead of once-a-week sessions, you receive intensive guidance over multiple days. Unlike what you would read in a book or watch in a video, the live help you receive is tailored to your unique relationship. Support from experts gives you the opportunity to leave the retreat with tools and skills you can use in everyday life.

Opportunity to rebuild and repair:
For couples who have experienced conflict, disconnection, or even betrayal, a retreat provides a safe, guided environment to address these issues. Therapists can help partners navigate and repair communication in a way that reduces defensiveness and reactivity.

Renewed perspective:
Couples often walk away from the retreat with a sense of hope. Stepping outside the usual routine often brings a fresh perspective. Couples can reconnect with why they chose came together initially, uncover shared values and goals, and rediscover the strengths in their relationship.

Safeguards against future issues: Retreats are not only meant for couples with significant issues. A retreat can serve as relationship maintenance, helping to prevent problems from occurring in the future.

Break negative cycles:  This intentional time can help you develop the ability to break unhealthy cycles you and your partner may have been stuck in. Even just the reset environment can interrupt patterns like criticism, defensiveness, or withdrawal. Trained relationship experts can supply couples with practical exercises to replace harmful dynamics.

Revived sense of passion: Retreats often include fun activities or exercises focused on improving your bond. Shared experiences could be therapeutic workshops, outdoor activities, or mindfulness practices. Couples may feel as though they are “teammates” and “friends” again.

What to Expect at a Couples Retreat

Marriage or couples retreats are usually two or three days long, though some are a week in length.You can expect a mix of guided sessions (led by therapists, coaches, or facilitators) and private downtime with your partner. Days are typically broken up into a morning session and an afternoon session, with a break in the middle.

Before Signing Up

Before signing up for a California Couples Retreat, you will want to do your research. California offers a rich variety of couples retreats with each designed to support emotional connection, self-growth, and relationship revival in different styles and settings.

It’s important to check the background and experience of the facilitators. See if the therapists approach are in line with what you’re looking for. The advantage of choosing a retreat through the Couples Center is knowing you’ll be with licensed therapists who bring years of experience.

Before Attending

Even before attending the retreat, couples should begin to prepare by reflecting on what they would like to get out of the devoted time. Sometimes you are given a questionnaire to fill out beforehand.

Questions to reflect on before attending a couples retreat:

• What strengths do we have as a couple?
• What issues or disagreements tend to recur for us?
• How do we communicate when things are going well? What about when things are tense?
• In what ways have we become disconnected? In what areas is there room for greater connection?
• How is the balance of independence and togetherness?

In addition to these questions to ponder together, there are questions to consider as an individual as well. For example:

• What do I feel most grateful for in my partner and in our relationship?
• What personal patterns or behaviors might be contributing to the issues in my relationship?
• What do I most want my partner to better understand about me?
• When do I feel most connected to my partner? What about least connected?
• How do I usually handle conflict in my relationship? What do I wish I could differently in times of conflict?
• What fears or insecurities come up for me when I think of our relationship?
• What do I need more of from this relationship (affection, support, appreciation, respect, playfulness, etc.)?
• What would I define as “success” from the retreat?

At the Retreat

While retreats can vary greatly in type from intensive couples therapy to wellness and mindfulness to spa and luxury to adventure-focused, they all have the common themes you can expect to find.

• Change of scenery: The environment is designed to take you out of daily stressors and into a space where you can reconnect.
• Structured time together: Your agenda likely includes workshops, communication exercises, and sometimes experiential practices like movement or art.
• Therapeutic or growth-centered work: This will depend on the type of retreat you’ve chosen
• Reflection: Personal reflection might be done through a mix of journaling, guided prompts and exercises.
• Vulnerability and Deep Communication: You can expect to have new conversations that bring out all types of emotions, allowing you to reach a new level together.
• Development of new skills: You’ll be taught new strategies and approaches to take home with you and use.

How Much Does a Couples Therapy Retreat Cost?

When it comes to regular couples therapy, you could expect to pay between $150 and $250 per hour to meet with a licensed therapist. Depending on where and how often you go, these sessions can cost thousands of dollars per year. You’ll usually have at least 15 to 20 therapy sessions to start seeing meaningful change, so $3,000 or more. A couples retreat is a way to see change, fast.

Couples Retreats in California can range greatly, with some luxury retreats costing more than 10,000 dollars. However, choosing a couples retreat with The Couples Center means you can expect to pay $1,250 for a group retreat weekend or $1,500 a day for a private one-on-one couples retreat.