The Couples Retreats:

Couples 1: Awakening Intimacy opens up heartfelt communication, where both partners genuinely feel heard, not just the words, but the feeling underneath the words. Instead of circular arguments that end up hurting each other more, couples learn how to achieve real freedom from the past hurts and let go of blame. If you have ever wondered why you are with the partner you are with, that question will be clearly answered. Sometimes in relationships, there is so much anger, guilt and shame that it is hard to take any steps forward. It’s as though the past builds up as armor over our hearts and baggage we carry into any new moment. 

At the Couples Awakening Intimacy Retreat, you begin to let go of that baggage and strip away the armor from your heart, so that you can see your partner with your heart. This Retreat is designed for ALL romantic partnerships. Whether you have been dating for six months are beginning to think of popping the question, but want to be absolutely certain or if you have been together for nearly 50 years, Couples Awakening Intimacy will allow you to clarify, explore and expand your vision for your relationship - so that it isn’t a pipe dream, but begins to come into reality. 

The Couples Awakening Workshop will focus on the exploration of the growth offered through a romantic relationship and how to dive into that opportunity, expanding each partner in the process. This experiential workshop will allow couples to: 

• Clarify, explore and expand your vision for your relationship;  
• Illuminate patterns from your family of origin and where these patterns are supporting and getting in the way of intimacy, love and connection;  
• Learn how to fight fairly, expressing upset fully without damaging your relationship, but rather forwarding it;  
• Nurture and develop your capacity to like and respect your partner for who they are.  
• Solve solvable problems and surrender to those that are not “solve-able.”  
• Continue to live into the highest potential of your partnership;  
• Warm, comfortable private lodging provided as well as nourishing meals in a family-style environment.

There have been couples who have an appointment with a divorce attorney scheduled on Monday morning following the retreat. I can think of a few couples who kept the appointment and proceeded to have divorces without acrimony, discord and killing each other. There have also been plenty of couples who had divorce lawyers scheduled, but then cancelled the divorce entirely, and are still married - but now happily - years later. Here is the good news, most of what you are arguing about has nothing to do with what you are arguing about. It’s really about what is underneath. 

At the Couples Awakening Intimacy Retreat, you will begin to understand what is at the heart of every argument, not just with your head, but with your full heart. Most of us put effort into our careers, time and attention into being parents, but we expect our romantic partnership to simply go along from day to day, investing precious little work into it. 

The Retreat offers not only tangible tools and techniques for you to use upon leaving, but it also offers the perspective of other couples who are walking the same path in a safe, warm, nurturing environment. 

Couples 2: The Passionate Partnerships Retreat is open to participants who have completed Couples I and understand the communication tools presented, as well as the patterns or 'dance' in which they engage as a couple. It is important that participants not only have a conceptual understanding of the practices, but also are actively utilizing what they learned in their relationship. Of course, no one is perfect, which is why there will be more practice in using techniques and tools to avoid minefields in the relationship.

Passionate Partnership will have you really operating from the perspective of ‘Your Joy is My Joy and Your Hurt is my Hurt.’ How do you have compassion for your partner, even in the midst of an argument? Instead of continuing to have either partner hurt, you will really understand the courage it takes to reach towards each other - it may feel like reaching into the lion’s cage when you just want to run away. In that courage there are magical intimate moments and connection.

John Gray wrote, Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus, and if you have ever been in a relationship, you undoubtedly understand that in ANY romantic relationship, whether it is a man and woman or two men or two women, it feels as though our partner is from a foreign country. They are speaking a different language from the one you are speaking and you don’t have a qualified translator.

When was the last time you belly laughed with your partner? Or felt that your partner was going out of their way for you? You will have the chance to experience that connection and put your love into action, practicing proven techniques to deepen intimacy and your sexual expression in the privacy of your own room. Finally, there is the old joke that once a woman is in a relationship, she disappears and no longer has any time for anyone or anything else.  

This isn’t a joke and it doesn’t just apply to women. People always as me, how do I live my own life fully and not lose my partner? This is perhaps one of the biggest questions and opportunities for each of us. In other words, how do you have a rich full life as an individual and also have deep intimacy and connection with your partner? This is a balance that many couples never achieve or even venture to attempt to achieve.

When was the last time you belly laughed with your partner? Or felt that your partner was going out of their way for you? You will have the chance to experience that connection and put your love into action, practicing proven techniques to deepen intimacy and your sexual expression in the privacy of your own room. Finally, there is the old joke that once a woman is in a relationship, she disappears and no longer has any time for anyone or anything else.