Couples intensives  ·  San Diego

Months of couples work, in two or three days.

Weekly therapy asks you to open something painful, then close it back up after fifty minutes and carry it through the week. For some couples that rhythm works. For others, it means you never get past the surface. An intensive gives you uninterrupted time to actually finish a conversation.

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Coming from out of town?

Couples travel to San Diego from across the country for this work. See how our fly-in couples intensive works, including where to stay and how to plan your trip.

Plan your fly-in intensive
Why couples choose this

When weekly sessions aren't moving it.

Fifty minutes a week is roughly forty hours a year, minus the time spent catching up and re-regulating. Couples in real crisis often spend most of that just getting back to where they left off.

An intensive removes that overhead. You go deep once, with enough time to reach the thing underneath, and you leave with something different than you came in with.

You've been in weekly couples therapy for months and keep having the same argument in a different outfit.
Something happened, an affair, a betrayal, a disclosure, and you need to address it now rather than over the next year.
One or both of you travels, deploys, or works a schedule that makes weekly sessions unrealistic.
You're deciding whether to stay together and you want a real answer, not another six months of drift.
You live outside San Diego and would rather come for a few days than fly back weekly.
Formats

Two lengths, one flat fee

Both formats take place in our Mission Valley office. Which one fits depends on what you're working through, and we'll tell you honestly during the screening call.

Two days
Two-day intensive
$2,500
For couples working on a defined issue: communication breakdown, a specific rupture, disconnection that hasn't hardened yet, or reconnecting after a long separation or deployment.
Two full days of couples work
Pre-intensive assessment for each partner
A written plan you leave with
One follow-up session included
Three days
Three-day intensive
$4,000
For couples carrying more weight: infidelity and betrayal repair, long-standing patterns, trauma histories that keep surfacing in the relationship, or a decision about the future of the marriage.
Three full days of couples work
Pre-intensive assessment for each partner
Individual time with each partner
A written plan you leave with
Two follow-up sessions included
Inside your day

The work begins before you walk in

Each of you completes a private pre-intensive assessment ahead of time, so day one starts in the deep end instead of on paperwork. From there, a day with us moves like this.

Morning

Together

An hour side by side, mapping the pattern beneath the conflict.

Late morning

One on one

Private time with each of you, to reach what's hard to say in the room.

Midday

A real pause

Lunch and a genuine breath, so the morning's work can settle.

Afternoon

Restore

A couples massage at a luxury resort spa.

Our gift to you
Close

By the coast

A quiet closing by the water to mark the turn.

Your therapist

You'll be working with Dr. Regina Ransom

Dr. Ransom has been married for thirty-three years and raised six children with her husband. She knows, in her own life and not only from a chair, what it takes to build something lasting with another person and to keep choosing it through the hard seasons.

In her work with couples, she draws on the Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the two most research-backed approaches to relationship repair, to help you get underneath the conflict and build something you can actually keep.

What it looks like

The shape of an intensive

Every intensive is built around the couple in front of us, so the specifics vary. The arc is consistent.

01

Before you arrive

Each partner completes an assessment separately, and we have a screening conversation. By the time you walk in, we already know the history, which means day one isn't spent on intake.

02

Getting to what's actually underneath

The presenting problem is rarely the real one. The first stretch is spent finding the pattern beneath the arguments, including what each of you learned about love and safety long before you met.

03

The hard conversation, with support in the room

The one you've been circling for months or avoiding entirely. Having a clinician present changes what's possible, because nobody has to manage it alone and nobody gets to leave the room.

04

Building something you can actually use

Insight that doesn't survive contact with a Tuesday is worth very little. We end by building concrete agreements and skills, and you leave with a written plan.

05

Follow-up

Your intensive includes follow-up sessions, because the weeks after are when the work either takes hold or fades. We check what's holding and what isn't.

Honest fit

An intensive isn't right for every couple

We screen for this before you pay anything. If we're not the right container for what you're carrying, we'll say so and help you find what is.

This tends to work when

Both partners are choosing to be there.
You want the relationship to work, or you genuinely want clarity about whether it can.
You can both be present for consecutive days without work pulling you out.
You're willing to hear things that are uncomfortable.

This isn't the right setting when

There is violence or fear of a partner in the relationship. Concentrated conjoint work can make that more dangerous, not less.
One partner is attending under pressure, or doesn't know why they're coming.
There's active, untreated substance dependence that would make the days unworkable.
An affair is ongoing and undisclosed. That work has to happen first.
One of you is in acute crisis and needs individual care first.

If any of this is your situation, apply anyway if you'd like. We'll have an honest conversation and point you toward the right support. Nothing is charged unless we both agree an intensive is the right move.

How to begin

Application, then a conversation

We don't take bookings from a button. An intensive is too much time, money, and vulnerability to hand over without talking first.

Step one

Apply

A short form about what's going on, what you've already tried, and what you're hoping for. Takes about ten minutes. No payment at this stage.

Step two

Screening call

A conversation with Dr. Ransom about whether an intensive is the right fit, which format makes sense, and what to expect. Free, and either of us can say no.

Step three

Reserve your dates

If we both agree it's a fit, we'll send a deposit link and hold your dates. Pre-intensive assessments go out from there.

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A $1,000 non-refundable deposit reserves your dates and is applied toward your total. It's only collected after we've spoken and agreed an intensive is right for you.

Common questions

Before you apply

How many hours a day is it?
Full days with breaks built in. Intensives are demanding, and we pace them so you can actually absorb the work rather than white-knuckle through it. Exact scheduling is set with you once your dates are booked.
Do we have to know whether we're staying together?
No. Plenty of couples come in genuinely unsure. Wanting a real answer is a legitimate reason to do an intensive, and clarity is a valid outcome even when it isn't the one you hoped for.
Is the deposit refundable?
The $1,000 deposit is non-refundable and is applied toward your total. Cancellations must be made at least 14 days before your intensive dates. Blocking multiple consecutive days means turning away other work, which is why the terms are firmer than for weekly sessions.
Do you take insurance for intensives?
No. New Birth Family Counseling is a private-pay practice and doesn't bill insurance of any kind. Intensives in particular are almost never a covered benefit anywhere.
Can we do an intensive by telehealth?
Intensives are held in person in our Mission Valley office. The format depends on being in a room together without the option to close a laptop. Follow-up sessions can be by telehealth.
We're traveling in for this. Any advice?
Book separate lodging from the intensive days if you can afford the space, arrive the night before, and don't schedule a flight out the same evening you finish. Give yourselves the night after. We'll talk through logistics on the screening call. If you're flying in, see our fly-in couples intensive page for where to stay and how to plan the trip.
What if you decide we're not a fit?
Then we'll tell you, explain why, and point you toward what would help more, whether that's weekly couples work, individual therapy first, or a different kind of support entirely. Nothing is charged.
Begin

You've been having the same conversation
for a long time. Let's finish it.

Apply in about ten minutes. We'll follow up to schedule a screening call and tell you honestly whether an intensive is the right move.

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