What a marathon intensive actually involves
Each intensive begins with a comprehensive Gottman-Method couples assessment — a detailed inventory of relationship strengths, communication patterns, conflict triggers and points of meaning. The intensive itself runs across two or three consecutive days, with structured therapy sessions interleaved with breaks for the couple to integrate what is emerging. Four follow-up sessions, weekly or fortnightly, embed the work into ordinary life.
When marathon therapy is the right format
Marathon work is particularly suited to couples whose schedules don't allow consistent weekly attendance, couples in acute crisis where waiting four weeks for the next session feels untenable, and couples in regional or remote areas of North Queensland who would otherwise need to travel repeatedly. It is also a powerful format for couples who have completed weekly therapy elsewhere and want a focused reset.
Grounded in Gottman-Method research
The Gottman Method is the most heavily researched approach to couples therapy in the world — built on more than four decades of longitudinal study of what predicts relationship success and failure. Our marathon work uses the same diagnostic tools and interventions as standard Gottman therapy, sequenced for the intensive format.
- Comprehensive pre-intensive assessment using the Gottman Relationship Checkup
- Two-to-three days of structured couples work in a private therapy room
- Conflict-management, friendship-building and shared-meaning interventions
- Aftercare plan and four follow-up sessions to consolidate change
What changes for couples who complete a marathon
We don't promise outcomes — no honest therapist can. What we consistently see is the kind of structural change that doesn't tend to emerge in 50-minute weekly sessions: couples who can name what triggers them, identify the start of a destructive cycle before they are inside it, and repair small ruptures before they accumulate into resentment.