Couples Therapy Intensive Weekends in Durham Region, Toronto & Ontario
Transform Your Relationship in Just Two Days
PACT & EFT Based Intensive Couples Retreats in Ajax & Oshawa or We Come to You
Accelerated Healing and Lasting Change
Evidence Based Methods
Transformative Weekends
You Don't Have Months to Wait for Your Relationship to Get Better
Your relationship is struggling, and every week that passes feels like you're drifting further apart. Maybe you're caught in the same arguments, going in circles without ever getting anywhere. Or maybe you've gone quiet—the distance between you growing wider, the connection you once had feeling like a distant memory.
You've thought about couples therapy, but here's the problem: weekly sessions move so slowly. You spend 50 minutes opening up, just starting to get somewhere, and then time's up. You leave with unresolved tension hanging between you, and by the time your next appointment rolls around, you've had a fight, shut down, or gotten busy with life. You're back to square one.
And if you have demanding careers, kids, or conflicting schedules, finding time for weekly therapy appointments feels impossible. By the time you coordinate calendars and actually sit down together in a therapist's office, weeks have gone by and things have only gotten worse.
What if you could bypass months of weekly sessions and make real, meaningful progress in just one weekend? What if you could dedicate focused, uninterrupted time to your relationship and walk away with the tools and understanding you need to actually change things?
Couples Therapy Intensive: Transform Your Relationship in One Weekend
A couples therapy intensive weekend compresses months of therapy into 12 hours of focused, transformative work over just two days.
Instead of the stop-and-start nature of weekly sessions, you get deep, concentrated time to understand what's really going on in your relationship and learn how to create lasting change.
At The Relationship Agency in Ajax and Oshawa, our couples therapy intensives are led by our clinic founder Michelle Garraway and Interpersonal Psychotherapist Maria Yammine, who use the PACT method (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy)—a cutting-edge approach supported by the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Interpersonal Psychotherapy. This isn't just about learning communication skills. It's about understanding the nervous system, attachment, and what happens beneath the surface when you're in conflict.
The intensive environment quickly breaks down your typical protection and coping mechanisms and allows you to move into real healing and transformation. You'll find that you'll make significant progress on long-standing issues in a short amount of time.
What Is a Couples Therapy Intensive Weekend?
A couples therapy intensive is an accelerated, immersive approach to relationship healing. Instead of spreading therapy across months of weekly appointments, you dedicate a full weekend to your relationship—away from the distractions of everyday life, with expert guidance every step of the way.
Why Intensives Can Be Better Than Weekly Therapy
You Stay In The Work
When therapy happens in 50-minute chunks, you're constantly stopping and starting. Just as you're getting to the core of an issue, the session ends. With an intensive, you have time to go deep and actually work through what's happening, not just talk about it.
Real Time Transformation
The intensive format allows you to practice new skills and see results immediately. You're not just learning concepts and hoping to apply them later—you're experiencing change as it happens, right there in the room.
No Life Interruptions
Between weekly sessions, life gets in the way. Work stress, kids, family obligations—by the time you're back in therapy, you've had three new fights and forgotten what you were even working on. Intensives eliminate this problem by concentrating the work into an uninterrupted weekend..
Faster Results
Research shows that intensive couples therapy can achieve the same results as six months of weekly sessions. You get to the root of your issues quickly and start rebuilding your relationship right away.
Need to talk about it first?
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Your couples therapy intensive weekend is a deeply personalized experience designed around your unique relationship and goals. While each intensive is tailored to what you need, here's a typical structure to give you an idea of what to expect:
What to Expect During Your 2-Day Couples Therapy Intensive
The Schedule
Two full days: Saturday and Sunday
Each day runs from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM with a lunch break at noon
Total: 12 hours of focused couples therapy over the weekend
Morning Session (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM): Three hours of intensive work
Lunch Break (12:00 PM - 1:00 PM): Time to rest, reflect, and recharge
Afternoon Session (1:00 PM - 4:00 PM): Three hours of continued therapeutic work
The Content
Intake and Assessment: The first session begins with gathering your histories—both individually and as a couple. Michelle or Maria will learn about your backgrounds, your relationship story, what brought you together, and what's brought you to this point. This isn't just surface-level information—you'll explore how your upbringings, past relationships, and life experiences shape how you show up in this relationship.
Identifying Your Goals: Together, you'll clarify what you want to achieve during the intensive and what you hope your relationship will look like moving forward. These goals will guide the entire weekend and help focus the work where it matters most.
Understanding Your Nervous System: You'll learn about how your autonomic nervous system drives your responses in conflict. When do you go into fight-or-flight? What does that look like for each of you? How do your nervous systems interact—and how can you stop triggering each other?
Introduction to Attachment: You'll explore your attachment styles and how they influence your relationship. Are you anxiously attached, avoidant, secure, or a mix? Understanding this foundation is crucial to making sense of your patterns.
Identifying Your Negative Cycle: Every couple has a dance they do when things go wrong—the pattern that keeps repeating no matter how many times you promise things will be different. On day two, you'll identify your specific negative cycle and understand exactly how it plays out.
The PACT Model of Secure Functioning: This is the heart of the work. You'll learn what it means to create a secure-functioning relationship where you both put each other first, protect each other, and operate as a true team. This isn't just theory—you'll practice secure functioning in real time.
Communication Skills for Attachment Safety: You'll learn and practice communication techniques that create emotional safety instead of defensiveness. This goes beyond "I statements"—you'll learn how to speak in a way that your partner's nervous system can hear.
Co-Regulation: One of the most powerful aspects of the intensive is learning to regulate each other's nervous systems. Instead of escalating conflict, you'll learn how to calm each other down and create safety in the moment.
Rituals, Vision, and Governance: You'll develop concrete rituals of connection, create a shared vision for your relationship, and establish governance—the agreements and structures that will help you maintain the progress you've made.
Your Intensive Workbook
You'll receive a comprehensive workbook covering 14 essential areas for healthy relationships, including:
Understanding attachment and nervous system regulation
Communication and conflict resolution skills
Building emotional and physical intimacy
Trust, betrayal, and repair
Managing differences and navigating gridlock
Creating shared meaning and vision
Parenting and family dynamics
Managing stress and life transitions
The workbook includes exercises and journal prompts to continue your growth long after the intensive ends.
What Couples Therapy Intensives Can Help With
Breaking negative cycles — The pursue-withdraw pattern, criticism-defensiveness, stonewalling, or constant fighting
Rebuilding trust after betrayal — Healing from infidelity, lies, or broken promises
Reconnecting emotionally and physically — Rediscovering intimacy, desire, and emotional closeness
Communication breakdowns — Learning to talk about difficult topics without shutting down or blowing up
Attachment wounds — Healing old injuries that keep showing up in your relationship
Conflict about parenting — Getting on the same page about how to raise your children
Life transitions — Navigating changes like new jobs, moves, empty nesting, or retirement
Resentment and gridlock — Working through built-up hurt and seemingly unsolvable problems
Preparing for marriage — Building a strong foundation before your wedding day
Rebuilding after crisis — Recovering from loss, illness, financial stress, or other major life challenges
The PACT Method: A Neuroscience-Based Approach to Couples Therapy
PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy) is based on neuroscience, attachment theory, and an understanding of how your nervous system affects your relationship. Unlike traditional couples therapy that focuses mainly on communication skills, PACT recognizes that what happens in your body—your physiological responses, your nervous system activation—drives your relationship patterns.
When you're in conflict, your nervous system goes into fight-or-flight mode. Your partner becomes a threat instead of a source of safety. You defend, attack, shut down, or withdraw—not because you don't love each other, but because your nervous system is trying to protect you.
PACT helps you:
Understand your nervous system responses — Learn to recognize when you're activated and how to regulate yourself
Create secure functioning — Build a relationship where you both feel safe, protected, and put first
Work in real time — PACT is highly experiential, addressing what's happening right now in your relationship, not just talking about past issues
Break negative cycles — Identify the patterns that keep you stuck and learn how to interrupt them
Develop co-regulation — Learn to calm each other's nervous systems instead of triggering them
Supported by Gottman, EFT, and Interpersonal Psychotherapy
While PACT is the foundation, our intensive also integrates proven approaches from:
The Gottman Method: Research-backed interventions that strengthen friendship, manage conflict, and create shared meaning in your relationship.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): An attachment-based approach that helps you understand the emotional needs driving your interactions and teaches you how to respond to those needs effectively.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy: Focused on improving communication patterns and resolving relationship difficulties through understanding interpersonal dynamics.
This combination creates a comprehensive, powerful approach that addresses your relationship from multiple angles—neuroscience, attachment, communication, and emotional connection.
Why Couples Therapy Intensives Work: The Science
Research on Intensive Couples Therapy
Studies on intensive couples therapy show significant benefits compared to traditional weekly sessions:
Couples report immediate improvements in relationship satisfaction after intensive weekends
Intensive formats lead to faster conflict resolution and skill acquisition
The concentrated time allows for deeper emotional processing and bonding
Couples experience enhanced attachment security and emotional safety
Intensive therapy can achieve in one weekend what takes months in weekly sessions
The Evidence Behind PACT, Gottman, and EFT
PACT (Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy): Based on cutting-edge neuroscience and attachment theory, PACT has shown effectiveness in helping couples create secure-functioning relationships. The focus on nervous system regulation and real-time intervention creates faster, more lasting change.
The Gottman Method: Over 40 years of research with thousands of couples has established the Gottman Method as one of the most effective approaches to couples therapy. Gottman's research can predict with over 90% accuracy which couples will succeed—and the intensive format allows you to implement these research-backed interventions quickly.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): EFT is recognized as an empirically validated treatment for couples, with research showing 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and approximately 90% show significant improvement.
The integration of these approaches in an intensive format provides comprehensive, evidence-based treatment that addresses your relationship from every angle.
Is a Couples Therapy Intensive Right for You?
A couples therapy intensive weekend might be exactly what you need if:
You're tired of the same arguments and patterns—you want to actually break the cycle, not just talk about it
You've tried weekly couples therapy but it feels too slow or you keep getting interrupted by life
One or both of you has a demanding career or schedule that makes weekly appointments nearly impossible
You want to dedicate focused, uninterrupted time to your relationship without the distractions of everyday life
You're at a crossroads—contemplating separation or divorce but want to give your relationship one real chance
You've experienced a betrayal (infidelity, broken trust) and need intensive support to heal
You're preparing for a major life transition (marriage, having children, blending families) and want to strengthen your foundation
You feel disconnected and distant, and you're not sure how to find your way back to each other
You live in Toronto, across Ontario, or outside Durham Region but want access to specialized couples therapy
You want evidence-based treatment that goes beyond basic communication tips to address what's really happening in your relationship
Couples Therapy Intensive FAQs
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Most couples complete one intensive weekend and then continue with periodic follow-up sessions or maintenance therapy as needed. Some couples choose to do additional intensive work if they're addressing particularly complex issues. Michelle or Maria will discuss what's best for your situation.
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Many couples come to intensives at this crossroads. The intensive format gives you the focused time and expert support to determine whether your relationship can be saved—and if you choose to stay, you'll have the tools to actually make it work. If you ultimately decide to separate, you'll do so with clarity and understanding rather than lingering "what ifs."
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This is common. Often one partner is eager for therapy while the other is skeptical. The intensive format can actually help with this—it's easier to commit to one weekend than months of ongoing appointments. The experiential nature of the work also tends to engage even reluctant partners once they experience it.
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Couples therapy is typically covered by extended health insurance plans in Ontario that include psychotherapy services provided by Master’s Level Registered Social Workers. We recommend contacting your insurance company to discuss coverage. We provide receipts with our professional registration numbers for insurance reimbursement.
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The intensive format is often much more effective than weekly therapy, especially if your previous experience felt too slow or got derailed by life. The PACT approach is also different from traditional couples therapy—it addresses the underlying nervous system and attachment dynamics, not just surface-level communication.
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You'll leave with a comprehensive workbook, concrete tools and practices, and a clear plan for maintaining your progress. Michelle or Maria will discuss follow-up care options, which might include periodic check-in sessions or joining one of our couples support groups.
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Absolutely. Many couples continue with their individual therapy while participating in a couples intensive. Michelle or Maria can coordinate with your individual therapists if helpful.
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Most couples report feeling a mix of relief, hope, exhaustion (the good kind), and renewed connection. You've done deep work, so it's normal to feel tired. Give yourselves some space after the intensive to integrate what you've learned—don't schedule anything demanding right after.
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We have offices in Ajax and Oshawa in Durham Region, Ontario. For couples across Ontario, Michelle and Maria can also travel to you at an additional cost for intensive sessions.
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A two day couples intensive at one of our offices with Michelle is $4,850.
A two day couples intensive at one of our offices with Maria is $3,770.
Transform Your Relationship This Weekend in Durham Region or Toronto
You don't have to spend months in therapy wondering if things will ever get better. A couples therapy intensive weekend offers a faster, more powerful path to the relationship you both want.
Whether you're in Ajax, Oshawa, Toronto, or anywhere across Ontario, Michelle and Maria provide PACT-based intensive couples therapy that addresses the real issues beneath your conflicts—your nervous systems, your attachment, and the patterns that keep you stuck.
In just two days, you can break the negative cycles that have plagued your relationship and start building the secure, connected partnership you both deserve.
Your relationship is worth two days of focused attention. Contact The Relationship Agency today to schedule your consultation and learn more about how a couples therapy intensive weekend can transform your relationship.
The Relationship Agency
Serving Ajax, Oshawa, Durham Region, Toronto & All of Ontario
Couples Therapy Intensive Therapists: Michelle & Maria
Couples Therapy Intensive Weekends Serving:
Ajax • Oshawa • Whitby • Pickering • Bowmanville • Courtice • Durham Region • Toronto • Scarborough • Markham • Vaughan • Greater Toronto Area • Ontario
Relationship Services:
Couples Therapy Intensive • Couples Retreat • Marriage Intensive • Relationship Retreat • PACT Couples Therapy • Gottman Method • Emotionally Focused Therapy • EFT Couples Therapy • Marriage Counseling Intensive • Couples Weekend Retreat • Premarital Intensive • Relationship Counseling
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