A private destination couples intensive
Come to San Diego. Step away from the noise. Focus on us.
A private destination couples intensive for one couple at a time. You travel here, step out of the routines and roles that keep the same argument on repeat, and do focused work in one of the most restorative places to do it.
Why couples travel for this
Sometimes you have to leave home to change what happens there
Fifty minutes once a week, with a fresh reset every seven days, is often not enough to shift a pattern that took years to build. Traveling for the work does something a local appointment can't: it puts real distance between you and the pull of ordinary life.
When you fly in, you leave behind the commute, the inbox, the school pickups, the same four walls where the same fight always happens. That physical distance creates psychological space, room to actually hear each other without the day interrupting. Many of the couples who come to us have already tried counseling at home. Some want an approach they can't find locally. Others simply want to give their relationship their full, undivided attention for a few days. Choosing the right therapist matters more than choosing the closest one, and for an intensive, traveling is often the point.
Out-of-state couples
There's no therapist near you doing this kind of work, or you'd simply rather come somewhere restorative to do it.
Professionals & military families
You value privacy and can't disappear into months of weekly sessions. A focused window, handled discreetly, fits your life better.
Couples at a turning point
Distance, disconnection, a breach of trust, or a decision that keeps getting postponed. You want to face it fully, together.
Couples who want a reset
You want the work to feel like a shared experience you'll remember, not another appointment squeezed into a hard week.
One couple only
This is private. It is not a group retreat.
Your fly-in intensive is built for one couple, start to finish.
There is no group, no audience, no shared schedule to keep up with. Every hour is yours, and the pacing bends to what your relationship needs on the day, not to a room full of other people. You have Dr. Ransom's full clinical attention, and the entire experience is shaped around your history, your patterns, and your goals. If you'd prefer to do this work alongside a few other couples, we also offer a small-group retreat, and you can compare the two further down this page.
Before you fly
It begins with ROOTED, before you board the plane
Your intensive doesn't start when you land. It starts with ROOTED, our private pre-assessment, completed separately by each partner before you travel. It's a reflective questionnaire, not a test and not a diagnosis, and it lets us understand your relationship before you ever sit down. That means day one begins in the deep water instead of on intake paperwork.
ROOTED then follows you all the way through: an experiential workbook you use during the intensive itself, and the source material for the personalized Aftercare Blueprint you take home. It's the throughline that keeps the whole experience specific to you.
The four-stage journey
One arc, four stages
Every intensive moves through the same framework, built around the couple in front of us. How far you go into it depends on what you're carrying and the format you choose.
Foundation
Safety first. We map the pattern beneath the conflict and what each of you learned about love and trust long before you met.
Repair
The hard conversation you've been circling, with a clinician in the room so nobody holds it alone and nobody leaves.
Rebuild
Turning insight into new patterns and ways of reaching for each other that hold up on an ordinary Tuesday.
Stabilization
Giving the change room to settle, so what shifted in the room becomes something you can keep once you're home.
2-Day reaches Repair · 3-Day Signature reaches Rebuild · 4-Day Premier completes Stabilization
Who you'll work with
Dr. Regina Ransom
Before I was a clinician, I served in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear engineer aboard a submarine, and I've been married for thirty-three years and raised six children with my husband. I know what it is to keep a relationship alive through pressure, distance, and the seasons that test it.
I hold a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Clinical Supervision and a doctorate in Mind-Body Medicine, and I built these intensives to weave together the best of the Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and whole-person wellness. When couples fly in to do this work, I don't hand it off. You work directly with me.
This is sacred work, and I treat it that way.
Choose your intensive
Three private formats
All three are private, for one couple only, in our Mission Valley office. Which one fits depends on what you're working through, and we'll tell you honestly on the screening call.
A focused two days for couples working through a defined rupture or a stuck pattern, who need real, unbroken time to move it.
Our core clinical experience. The full foundation, repair, and rebuild arc, for couples carrying more weight, including betrayal repair and long-standing cycles.
The complete arc, unhurried, closing with dedicated stabilization time. Our highest-touch destination format, a natural fit for couples flying in.
A non-refundable deposit reserves your dates once your application is approved: $1,000 for the two- and three-day, and $1,500 for the four-day, which can be split into two installments. Intensives are private pay; a superbill can be provided on request. See the full fees page for details.
Every private intensive includes
- ROOTED Pre-Assessment, completed separately before arrival
- Personalized preparation before you arrive
- A one-couple-only clinical experience
- Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy, integrated
- Holistic mind-body-spirit integration
- ROOTED experiential work
- A private restorative bodywork experience at the end of Day 2
- A personalized Aftercare Blueprint
- Four weekly follow-up sessions after the intensive
Restoration is part of the work
A reset built into the middle of it
The hardest stretch of an intensive is the repair work, and pushing straight through it depletes people. So a private restorative bodywork experience is woven in at the end of Day 2, intentionally placed after the deepest work, designed to support nervous-system decompression and let your bodies catch up with what your hearts have been doing. It isn't a spa perk bolted on. It's part of how the work lands, and we keep the details a gentle surprise.
San Diego becomes part of it
The place does some of the work
There's a reason we do this here. The coast, the light, and the slower pace of a few days away all lower the volume enough for real change to happen. The appropriate intensives close with an intimate coastal renewal experience, a quiet moment by the water to mark the turn you've made together. We keep where and how a surprise, because some things land better when you don't see them coming.
An option most practices can't offer
Address the body, not just the conversation
Chronic stress, poor sleep, thyroid and hormone shifts, and an overtaxed nervous system change how patient, present, and connected we're able to be. Because New Birth is an integrative practice, couples can add a functional-medicine layer to their intensive, so what's happening physically doesn't quietly undo the relational work. It's optional, and it's part of what makes this different from talk-only intensives elsewhere.
Your Aftercare Blueprint
You leave with a roadmap, not a worksheet
Most couples work sends you home with a stack of generic handouts. Your Aftercare Blueprint is the opposite of that. It's written for you, after your intensive, from what actually emerged in your days together: your patterns, your agreements, and the specific things that will try to pull you back. It names what to watch for, what to practice, and how to reach for each other when the old cycle shows up. It's how a good experience becomes something you actually keep.
The first weeks home
We don't send you home and hope it holds
The weeks right after you fly home are when the work either takes hold or quietly fades, especially once ordinary life rushes back in. So every intensive includes four weekly follow-up sessions in the month after you return, built into the price, not sold as an add-on. We stay with you while the change settles, notice where the old pattern tries to return, and adjust the plan to real life. Follow-ups are held by telehealth, so distance is never the reason momentum stops.
Private or small-group?
Two ways to do destination work with us
Most couples who fly in choose the fully private intensive on this page. Some prefer to do the work alongside a few other couples. Here's the difference.
Private destination intensive
- One couple, start to finish
- Maximum privacy
- Individualized pacing
- Individualized clinical focus
- Scheduled to your availability
Small-group couples retreat
- Maximum four couples
- Scheduled retreat dates
- Separate private sleeping rooms for each partner
- Shared teaching and experiential portions
- Private couple-specific work
- Meals and destination experience
- Mobile restorative bodywork
- Private coastal closing location
- Four-week follow-up and aftercare
- Priority-list enrollment initially
Retreat dates and pricing are announced to the priority list first.
How it works
From application to your dates
Apply
Tell us a little about where things stand. The application is private and takes just a few minutes. No payment at this stage.
Screening call
We talk to make sure an intensive is the right fit for both of you, and which format makes sense, before anyone commits. If it isn't, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.
Reserve & prepare
A deposit holds your dates. You each complete your ROOTED Pre-Assessment, and we point you to convenient places to stay. You book your own lodging for the two- and three-day; the four-day Premier includes accommodations.
Come do the work
You do the work here, then fly home with a personalized Aftercare Blueprint and four weekly follow-ups to keep it going.
Travel & logistics
What couples ask before they fly in
What does New Birth arrange, and what do we book ourselves?
We provide the clinical experience and, for the four-day Premier, your accommodations. For the two- and three-day formats, you book your own travel and lodging, and we'll point you to convenient options once you're approved. We don't arrange airfare or ground transportation, and there's no lodging or travel partner involved, so you keep full control of your own bookings.
Where should we stay, and how do we get here?
Our office is in Mission Valley, central to San Diego and easy to reach. Fly into San Diego International (SAN), roughly ten minutes away. There are several hotels within a short distance, including options on Hotel Circle and the San Diego Marriott Mission Valley near our office, which you'd book directly. Some couples prefer to stay closer to the coast for more of a getaway. Once you're approved, we'll help you choose what fits your dates. (For the four-day Premier, accommodations are included.)
Can we do an intensive if we don't live in California?
Yes. Your intensive takes place in person at our San Diego office, which is exactly why couples travel to us from out of state. You come here, do the work here, and fly home with your plan and four weekly follow-ups.
How soon can we come?
It depends on the season and our intensive calendar, but because we reserve dedicated blocks for intensives, we can often get you in sooner than a long weekly-therapy waitlist. Apply and we'll talk through timing on your screening call.
We've already tried couples therapy. Why would this be different?
Weekly therapy resets every seven days, which makes deep change slow. An intensive gives you uninterrupted time to reach the root of the pattern and do focused work together, using a blend of the Gottman Method, EFT, and whole-person work. Many of the couples who come to us have tried counseling before.
Do you work with couples after an affair or in real crisis?
Often, yes, and an intensive can be a powerful way to begin repair after a breach of trust. That said, an intensive isn't right for every situation. If there's active abuse, untreated addiction, or safety concerns, we'll say so on the screening call and help you find the right support first.
Is this covered by insurance?
Intensives are private pay, which lets us give you a fully dedicated, confidential experience without insurance limits on how we work. A superbill can be provided on request for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
What happens after we go home?
You leave with a personalized Aftercare Blueprint, and every intensive includes four weekly follow-up sessions in the month after you return, held by telehealth, to help the work hold once ordinary life resumes.
In their words
What Couples Are Saying
Dr. Gina really opened my eyes to how my childhood attachment experiences were showing up in my relationship. I honestly didn’t even realize that was a thing, or how much I was carrying into my marriage without knowing it. She helped me understand myself and our relationship in a completely different way. Thank you, Dr. Gina, for your skill, insight, and the way you helped us see what was really underneath some of our struggles.
Dr. Gina, we can’t thank you enough for opening your schedule and finding a way to fit us in for an intensive when we really needed it. The experience was raw, real, and at times difficult, but it was exactly what we needed. You created a space where we could finally have conversations we had been avoiding and begin working through things we couldn’t seem to resolve on our own. We truly couldn’t have done this without you.
Working with Dr. Gina helped me see things about myself and our relationship that I would have never seen on my own. She didn’t just focus on what my partner was doing. She helped me understand my own role, my reactions, and the patterns I was contributing to. That kind of insight was huge for me. I walked away understanding our relationship, and myself, so much better. I would definitely recommend working with her.
We are so grateful to Dr. Gina for her knowledge, skill, and the way she guided us through an incredibly difficult time in our relationship. There were moments when we didn’t know how we were going to move forward, and having someone who could help us slow things down, understand what was happening between us, and work through the hard parts made such a difference. We will forever be thankful for the care and guidance you gave us.
I’m so thankful for the raw and necessary truth I received from you, Dr. Gina. You were direct with us when we needed it, but I never felt judged or looked down on. That mattered more than I can explain. As a veteran yourself, I also felt like you understood parts of what we were going through in a way that didn’t require a long explanation. Thank you for giving us a place where we could be honest, deal with the difficult things, and still feel respected throughout the process.
Individual experiences vary. Testimonials reflect individual client experiences and are not a guarantee of specific outcomes.
Your turning point
Come do the work that changes things.
If you're ready to give your relationship your full attention, we'd be honored to guide you through it. Applying is the first step, and there's no commitment until we've talked.
If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or 911 in an emergency. This page is informational and is not a substitute for medical or mental-health care.