Marathon Couples Therapy
Marathon Therapy is an intensive treatment modality tailored specifically for couples who are interested in repairing or enhancing their relationship with the support and guidance of a relationship expert over the course of a few longer sessions of 4-6 hours.
Marathon therapy is a very different experience to traditional sessions. Here are some advantages to choosing to do an intense course of therapy:
In traditional marital and couples therapy, sessions are only 50-120 minutes long in duration. Especially if there has been recent trauma or there are complex challenges in the relationship, you may find that you’re just starting to dive into an important relationship issue when it is time to wrap up the session. This disrupts the therapeutic process leaving all parties feeling frustrated. With marathon therapy, we carve out the necessary time to really talk things through and to re-establish an emotional connection and mutual understanding before the time ends.
Rather than spreading out weekly sessions over the course of 3-6 months or sometimes even longer, you can experience more immediate relationship results instead of waiting for the process to unfold over an extended period of time.
Marathon therapy accommodates couples with full schedules who are unable to carve out 2-3 hours each week (travel time + therapy time) to participate in weekly couple’s therapy.
Marathon therapy provides a powerful treatment option for long distance couples who reside in different cities.
Does Marathon Therapy Work?
Some couples counsellors are choosing to work predominately using this modality because of their experience of the difference in the impact they can have with the longer sessions. There is also some preliminary research which suggests that this modality of couple therapy may be even more effective than the traditional “meet once a week” model. In a seminal study, Boegner & Zielenbach-Coenen (1984) They discovered that the group who received the most intensive treatment in a shortest amount of time obtained the best treatment outcomes. In another randomized clinical trial, Babcock, Gottman, Ryan & Gottman (2013) discovered that a weekend relationship workshop that focuses both on friendship enhancement and conflict management maximizes positive outcomes for couples.
There is a growing body of research that validates this approach to couple’s therapy. If you are interested in learning more about Marathon Therapy for Couples please see our list of practitioners below:
