Intensive Couples Counseling – Everything You Should Know

“We’ve been to therapy but nothing has changed. Things will never be different for us.” “I can’t believe my partner would hurt me like that. What am I supposed to do now?” “Can this relationship be saved? Is it even worth saving?” When a relationship is threatened by a sudden crisis or by issues that have been left unaddressed for too long, traditional weekly couples counseling may not provide enough support for couples to make the progress they need to keep their relationship going. That’s why we developed our Intensive Couples Counseling® Program: we know that some couples just need something more. Read on to learn more about how ICC can benefit your relationship.

What is Intensive Couples Counseling?

Intensive Couples Counseling is a short-term couples therapy format that is designed to give couples the dedicated time and space needed to address their challenges. Unlike traditional counseling, where you might only see your therapist for one hour per week over the course of multiple months, ICC programs entail a set number of hours spent with a trained couples therapist, administered in longer sessions over a shorter period of time. This allows couples to gain and sustain momentum, as well as fully immerse themselves in the therapeutic process.

How Does Intensive Couples Counseling Work?

In your ICC program, you and your partner will work closely with one of our most experienced ICC-certified couples therapists to explore the root causes of your relationship challenges, heal from past hurts, and develop better communication habits and more emotional connection. You will see your therapist for a set number of hours in three- to four-hour blocks, generally within two or three weeks. The length of sessions allows you to focus solely on your relationship without distractions, enabling you to make significant progress and accelerate the healing process. We also offer four different “curriculums”, but almost all of our ICC couples fall into two or more of these categories, and your program will be custom-tailored specifically to your needs.

How Much Does Intensive Couples Counseling Cost?

ICC programs start at $2,495 per couple. While the program has a higher upfront monetary cost compared to traditional weekly sessions, many couples find the benefits well worth the investment. With this style of therapy, you can avoid paying the time, energy, and emotional price of staying in a deteriorating relationship with no immediate hope for your future together.

When to Seek Intensive Couples Counseling

How will you know if this program is right for you? Our ICC participants often share these things in common before beginning with us:

When You Begin to Feel No Longer Happy in Your Relationship

If you’ve reached a point where you’ve begun to suspect that there is no happy future for you if you stay in your relationship, ICC may be right for you. This format of therapy is extremely useful for discernment counseling, a style of therapy geared towards exploring whether you even want to work on your relationship, or whether you’d be better off separating.

When You Want to Improve Your Relationship with Your Partner

A crisis like an affair or an addiction can devastate a relationship, and these challenges can be daunting to bounce back from. A skilled ICC therapist can guide you through the steps of rebuilding your relationship into something better than it was before.

When You've Done Traditional Couples Counseling and Want More Support

We’ve heard the same story from so many couples: they’ve been in therapy for years and haven’t made any progress, or they saw a therapist for a short time but didn’t find it helpful. That is exactly the kind of scenario that inspired us to create ICC in the first place. Our ICC therapists are committed to helping you make progress in this format by exposing the core of your struggles and providing the necessary structure and resources to help you thrive.

How to Prepare for Intensive Couples Counseling

To get the most out of your ICC investment, it's important to approach the process with an open mind, a willingness to be vulnerable, and a commitment to putting in the work necessary to see if your relationship can improve. Each partner engaging to the best of their ability is the number-one factor in success outcomes. We also encourage you to allow yourself to be challenged; sometimes, you have to be open to seeing things in a new way in order to get things to change.

Is Intensive Couples Counseling Worth It?

Over 95% of our ICC participants report that, regardless of the outcome of their program, they felt as though they gained something valuable from the experience, and left their program with the tools they needed to move forward in a positive and productive way. We’d say that’s worth the investment any day!

Intensive Couples Counseling in St. Louis Park, MN

If you're ready to take a deep dive into your relationship and work towards lasting, positive change, the compassionate ICC-certified therapists at the Relationship Therapy Center in St. Louis Park, MN are here to support you. Contact our ICC Program Coordinators today to take the first step towards learning to love better, and being better loved.