When your marriage isn’t working out as you hoped it would don’t pack your bags and head for the hills. On the contrary, the most successful marriages are the ones that endure hardship and fight like hell to stay together. Some couples do the traditional once a week couples counseling, while more urgent issues like infidelity and a lack of intimacy will do better by attending a highly focused marriage retreat.

Below is a list of the five best couples retreat in the U.S. Some of them are faith-based that is done in a group setting, while others are nonreligious private retreats. Whichever one you decide to choose, make certain to take advantage of the complimentary consultation to get all the details.  

FOCUS ON THE FAMILY

Location: Two locations available: Branson, MO and Greenville, MI

Price: $3,950 to $8,950 depending on days and locations

Overview: Focus on the Family is a Christian focused retreat that offers a 3, 4, and 5-day intensive counseling retreat that offers extended counseling sessions throughout a couple’s stay. They feel that the intensive approach allows the counselors that work with the couples to be able to get to the core issues that are damaging the relationship.

Through intensive therapy sessions, couples can identify the most serious issues in the relationship and then spend their time at the retreat working in a small group with a therapist to help them find solutions to those problems.

The benefit of their retreat is the amount of counseling time each couple receives. During the 4-day sessions, each couple receives an average of 32 hours of counseling. This is the equivalent of 6-9 months of traditional counseling over a matter of days.

WEEKEND TO REMEMBER

Location: 95 different locations across the U.S.

Price: $175 per person

Overview: Weekend to remember is geared towards Christian couples who don’t mind being around other couples in a group setting. It is less private than some of the retreats on this list, but it does cater to less serious marital issues. The focus of the weekend is for couples to be able to recharge their relationship and find ways to reconnect with one another.

This is more of a conference experience where couples will hear talks and presentations from marriage experts and are then given alone time to work on the concepts discussed in the lectures. This is accomplished through a variety of guided projects that each couple will work on immediately following each session.

RELATIONSHIP RESCUE ACADEMY

Location: Two locations available: Indiana and California

Price: $2,500 to $5,500 depending on a number of days and locations

Overview: Relationship Rescue Academy is a private marriage retreat where couples can work one-on-one with a marriage therapist. It is the design of their program to move couples through six months of therapy in a matter of days.

Since the sessions are private, couples are able to get a customized therapy plan that comes as a result of the sessions during the time spent at the retreat. They walk their clients through exercises that help to reveal the core issues of the marriage and then help them craft a plan of attack to fix those same issues.

LIFE MARRIAGE RETREAT

Location: Texas, Utah, California & In-Home Program

Price: Small Group is $3895 to $4395 per couple, 1-on-1 retreats start at start at $9495

Overview: Life Marriage Retreats offers group retreats, as well as private couples retreat. This retreat is unique as it offers an all-inclusive couples retreat. They also offer an In-Home Marriage Rescue program option. The therapist will come to a couple’s home for 3-hour sessions over 5 days. They understand that not all couples have the ability to leave for 3 or 4 days because of the commitments at home.

What they offer in each 3-hour session is a combination of therapy, training, mediation, and other activities geared towards healing those issues plaguing the relationship. At the end of each in-home session, couples are given specific assignments that they need to work on throughout the time the counselor is not in the home. Aside from the 3-hour daily sessions, the therapist is available 24 hours a day for those 5 days to answer any questions or help with issues that might arise during the time.

MARRIAGE BOOT CAMP

Location: Plano, TX and Allen, TX

Price: $1200 (does not include travel, hotels, or meals)

Overview: Marriage Boot Camp is a 4-day small group session that is geared towards healing issues with couples and also within themselves. It is their philosophy that each is responsible for their own healing, and the best way to heal couples is to help them heal themselves.

Couples will learn effective communication techniques that will help them put past issues behind them and healthily resolve conflicts. Couples work on their marital issues during the boot camp sessions and then work on their issues during the Life Enrichment sessions that take place in the evening.