“Deep relational work when your relationship feels like it’s on the brink”
We offer a powerful alternative to drawn-out weekly therapy. In just 1 to 3 days of focused work, we move into what matters underneath the conflict, disconnection, or trauma.
Whether you’ve experienced relational or developmental trauma, come from marginalized identities, or engage in non-traditional relationship structures, our intensives are built to support depth, safety, and change.
What a EFT Couples Intensive Looks Like?
Pre-Intake & Assessment
Before your intensive, we’ll gather background via questionnaires and one or more individual conversations. This helps us map relational history, attachment styles, trauma exposures, and your goals for deeper connection.
Intensive Days (1–3 days, depending on your needs)
During the intensive, we’ll:
Ground and orient together
Explore relational patterns and unmet attachment needs
Move through stuck or escalating cycles with somatic and experiential interventions
Foster deeper emotional attunement, repair ruptures, and co-create new relational movement
Integrate embodied shifts into new relational possibilities
Throughout, we take intentional breaks, pace according to capacity, and remain attuned to each partner’s experience.
Closing & Next Steps
At the end, you’ll have time to reflect, consolidate what arose, and plan for how to bring relational changes into your daily life. We may also explore follow-up supports (weekly therapy, check-ins, booster intensives, etc.).
Rates and Coverage
1-Day Intensive: Approximately 5–6 hours of couples work, plus pre- and post-session time
2-Day Intensive: Approximately 10–12 hours spread over two days
3-Day Intensive: Recommended for more complex or layered relational work
Each intensive is customized to meet your goals and pacing, with built-in time for rest, reflection, and integration.
The current rate is $200 per hour.
Services are often partially covered by insurance and can be split between both partners for reimbursement purposes.
This concentrated model allows for greater efficiency and therapeutic depth—helping many couples experience meaningful change in a shorter period. By engaging in focused, immersive work, you often spend less time in therapy overall and less money in the long run, while still achieving lasting relational growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
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These formats allow us to stay in momentum, reduce repetition, and work through escalations in real time. Many couples shift patterns quickly, repair ruptures deeply, and begin new relational rhythms in a way that often takes months via weekly sessions.
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Services are available in person in Montreal and virtually across Quebec and Ontario.
Many couples who prefer to work in person choose to travel to Montreal for 1–3 days to complete their intensive abut begin with a virtual intake and follow with virtual follow-up sessions.
This hybrid model offers flexibility and accessibility, especially for couples who may not have local access to trauma-informed, attachment-based therapists or those who are seeking a clinician who understands and affirms their diversity, identities, or unique relational structure.
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We begin with a conversation to explore your goals and see whether an intensive is the right fit. If it is, we’ll schedule and send preparatory materials.
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Every relationship is different, and healing unfolds at its own pace. While many couples experience meaningful breakthroughs during their intensive, the goal isn’t to “fix” everything in a single weekend — it’s to create the foundation for a new way of relating.
The intensive can serve as a launching platform, offering clarity, reconnection, and a shared language for understanding one another more deeply. From there, couples often continue the work through follow-up sessions, ongoing therapy, or integration practices at home.
The process can feel emotionally charged or tender at times, and that’s part of the work. Our role is to hold space for what arises, help both partners stay regulated and connected, and support the integration of insights and shifts that emerge long after the intensive ends.
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You may choose to continue in weekly therapy, schedule booster intensives, or maintain check-in sessions as needed to support continued growth and integration.
Ready to Begin?
If you’re ready to commit to relational healing from a deeper place, a Clinic Altera Couples Therapy Intensive might be your next step.
To learn more or begin with an assessment, please reach out to us at admin@clinicalaltera.com or speak with your assigned therapist about possibilities.
We welcome couples from all backgrounds — including queer, BIPOC, ethically non-monogamous, and those with trauma histories — who are committed to doing relational work with presence, care, and depth.
Why Choose a Couples Therapy Intensive?
You feel stuck or repeatedly triggered in patterns that you can’t seem to shift
You don’t want to wait months to access deeper relational work
Weekly therapy feels too slow or too surface-level
You’re committed to doing something different, with greater presence and focus
An intensive offers months of therapy in days, allowing more time for relational processing, attachment repair, and systemic shifts without the “breaks” between traditional sessions.
Our Approach & Framework
At Clinic Altera, our couples intensives integrate:
Trauma-informed care — prioritizing safety, pacing, and nervous system regulation
Attachment and psychodynamic orientation — exploring relational patterns, developmental wounds, and the undercurrents beneath conflict
Queer, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC affirming practice — holding space for identity, power, and systemic stress
Ethical non-monogamy inclusive lens — safe space to explore non-normative relationship structures without judgment
We work with partners who are committed to deep relational work, whether the relationship is new, in distress, or somewhere in between.
