"Marriage is only as good as the investment people make in it. God has constructed life so that we are always either going forward into the growth process or backing away from it. We can’t stay the same. And marriage reflects this reality."
Henry Cloud
What if we viewed marriage counseling the same as we view changing the oil in our cars? Or rotating our tires every 10,000 miles? Healthy marriages take investment. They take maintenance work. Couple therapy does not have to ONLY be for that last desperate moment right before divorce. Healthy marriages require tune-ups, investment, and attention.
Of course, couples’ counseling clearly involves some of those more "messy" moments: when communication has come to a screeching halt; where defensiveness and criticism are the name of the game; when understanding and compassion are long gone; when past trauma is significantly affecting the here and now. Trauma damages trust systems, self worth, and brings on the heavy blanket of hopelessness and despair. Using current advances in trauma research and neuroscience, I walk with couples to untangle the hurts that have been piling up for years, teach new and healthier ways of connecting, and work to embrace the grief over what has been lost. Don’t wait any longer. Let me walk with you to a place of healing. Counseling is available for weekly, 50 minute sessions are in an 8 hour concentrated format called Weekend Therapy Intensives.
Weekend Therapy Intensives
I also offer a Concentrated Therapy option for couple’s. Instead of 8 weeks of counseling, 1 hour at a time, the Concentrated Therapy format provides 8 hours of focused counseling sessions over a 2 day period in a retreat-type setting, and then 2 hours of follow-up.
The concentrated format provides a relational, healing space for couples to explore and engage the impact of their cycles of hurt, betrayal, hopelessness, and disconnection. It will provide time and space for you to enjoy a healing and romantic retreat, while working to rekindle passion and intimacy by shaping your relationship into a more secure loving bond.
This concentrated format is led by both Christine Hoover, LPC and Chris Hoover, her husband of 29 years. Christine and Chris are marriage educators, mentors to young couples, and they have been working together with couples for over 25 years. Chris works in pastoral counseling and is Prepare and Enrich facilitator and Gottman Marriage Level 1 trained. You can find all about their concentrated therapy on their website, Cultivating Relationships. Since they work together, the concentrated, intensive format allows for both Christine and Chris to work with you to offer insight, tools, and clarity on repairing your relationship. The budget intensives are held at their home in Huntsville. (Due to COVID, the retreat options have been unavailable.)
THE BENEFITS OF A Couple’s Therapy INTENSIVE
The overall benefit of intensive counseling is that participants can make extraordinary gains in concentrated periods of time.
Time-intensive sessions help uncover hidden barriers to help restore and strengthen broken marriages.
Holistic approach encourages each partner to explore their “whole self”, which is relational, emotional, spiritual, and physical.
Specialized counseling addresses cycles of criticism, defensiveness, and blame.
Longer sessions help reveal and heal communication barriers and disconnection.
2 Day schedule allows couples to be free from distractions to make room to explore personal and relational brokenness as well as help participants move quickly to core issue.
Spiritual direction cultivates capacity for intimacy with God, self, and others.
Trauma-informed counseling opens the door to address and treat trauma.
Grace-based counseling and compassionate care help bring wholeness and healing.
