What is Marathon Couples Counselling?
Best Marriages offers an intensive version of our regular counselling for couples who live out of town and cannot travel to Langley on a weekly basis. Essentially we would accomplish multiple session over the course of a few days. Arrangements can be made with one of our Certified Gottman Therapists to provide extended sessions consisting of 6 hours per day, occurring over several consecutive days.
Couples who have experienced this modality and have been in typical counselling sessions said they would never have made the breakthroughs they did without being able to work through their issue in one extended sitting. They felt that by not being rushed, the needed safety to share was built up as they went on in the session.
What does it involve?
Marathon Couples Therapy is an intensive and focused therapeutic modality for couples in high distress or simply in need of a marriage expert. What you can expect from a Marathon session with one of our counselors is to foster respect, affection, and closeness to build and share a deeper connection with each other’s inner world; to keep conflict discussions calm; to facilitate breakthroughs; to resolve conflict grid-lock; and to strengthen and maintain the gains in your relationship.
We start out by identifying the goals and intentions of the therapy process right from the start. We help couples come to a compromise on their “gridlocked” issues: many times couples do not always have the same aspirations, hopes or goals, yet they need to come to some sort of resolution. We do our best to honor both individuals’ hopes and dreams. Our goal is to facilitate clients in accessing new strengths, learning new skills, and gaining new insights, which moves them in the direction that they want their relationship to go.
Prior to coming in, you will complete an assessment packet which includes an intake form, a few quizzes that you can do online through our website and the Gottman Love Lab Questionnaire.
In this assessment packet you will be asked several questions about the current state of your relationship, as well as what it is you hope to achieve during therapy. These goals will become our objective, and we will review your assessment packet prior to meeting with you.
You will first meet together with your therapist, and then each partner will have the opportunity for an individual session as well (sometimes we may need do the individual sessions by phone prior to the couple attending the sessions). After that, the therapist will meet with both partners and discuss the current state of your relationship, how it got there, and the establishment of a plan for moving you toward your goals. Once we believe that we are all on the same page, the therapy begins in earnest.
How Does this Work?
If you live out of town, you will book two to four consecutive days of therapy. You would stay in a local hotel or commute back to your home, depending on travel distance. Depending on how the therapy evolves, you may choose to return for follow-up sessions every few weeks or months. If there is an infidelity in the marriage, please let us know as we would require a 3 day booking.
You will pay a 50% deposit at the time of booking and the remainder is payable 2 weeks prior to your first session. Due to our scheduling commitments, there is a 3 week cancellation policy. Your therapist has to make themselves available and arrange their schedules for these sessions, so it is imperative that you keep your appointment and commit to this process. If you cancel 3 weeks prior to the start of your therapy, a full refund will be issued.
We are available for Marathon sessions almost any day of the week, depending of course, on scheduling availability.
Please review the Love Lab Counseling Process section of our website to get a thorough description of what therapy will include.

Any couple who is experiencing marital or relationship distress who feel they would benefit from longer extended sessions.

Any couple who does not live in the vicinity of Langley, BC: more than an hour away for example (Vancouver, Chilliwack, or other parts of Canada or the USA).

Any couple in distress who feel the need for urgent help and will be unable to schedule regular sessions over time due to demands on their own schedules — work or travel, for example.
Who would Not be a Candidate?
Couples who have already determined to leave their relationship and cannot commit to the therapy process are unlikely to derive significant benefit from this process, and are therefore not candidates for this type of therapy.
Two Day Package
$4000 plus GST
- Includes all of the assessments and interventions mentioned above
- 12 hours of intensive therapy/coaching
- two individual sessions (within the 12 hours)
- feedback and goal setting session
- A take home package of tools and supplementary support material.
- Highly skilled therapist who has years of experience working with couples and are master trainers with the Gottman Institute.
Three Day Package
$6000 plus GST
- Recommended for Affair Recovery
- Includes all of the assessments and interventions mentioned above
- 18 hours of Intensive Therapy/Coaching
- two individual sessions (within the 18 hours)
- feedback and goal setting session
- A take home package of tools and supplementary support material.
- Highly skilled therapist who has years of experience working with couples and are master trainers with the Gottman Institute.
Four Day Package
$8000 plus GST
- Recommended for Affair recovery & those wanting extra support
- Includes all of the assessments and interventions mentioned above
- 24 hours of Intensive Therapy Coaching
- two individual sessions (within the 24 hours)
- feedback and goal setting session
- A take home package of tools and supplementary support material.
- Highly skilled therapist who has years of experience working with couples and are master trainers with the Gottman Institute.
- can also be divided into 2, 2-day sessions instead of 4 consecutive days
Not in the Langley Area?We offer intensive multi-day marathon counselling or couples workshops in multiple cities across British Columbia and Alberta.
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Don’t throw in the towel – your relationship is worth fighting forEven though it is easy to lose hope in finding a way out, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our job is to help you find it.
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