Couples Intensive in Milwaukee: Months of Couples Therapy in Two Days

By Laurie Groh, MS LPC SAS — Owner, Shoreside Therapies · Trained in the Gottman Method (Level 2), Relational Life Therapy (Level 2), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and Esther Perel's trainings

Weekly couples therapy works. But do the math on it: 50 minutes, once a week, usually at the end of a workday when you're both running on fumes — and the first ten minutes go to catching up on the week. Real traction takes four to six months of Tuesdays.

A couples intensive compresses that arc into two days. Twelve focused hours, just the two of you and one senior therapist, with a plan built from a structured assessment of your actual relationship — not a generic curriculum.

And here's something most Wisconsin couples don't know: this format is mostly sold into our state from elsewhere — delivered entirely over video, at these prices or higher. Ours happens in a real room in Milwaukee. (Live farther away, or simply prefer online? The Zoom version runs the same structure, with breaks designed for screens.)

The format and the real numbers

• 2-Day Couples Intensive — $4,500. A structured online relationship assessment you each complete beforehand. Then two days, six hours each, in person at our Milwaukee office or on Zoom — Day 1 opens with a private one-on-one conversation with each partner before we work together as three. A 60-minute follow-up session about two weeks later makes the changes stick. Thirteen hours of clinical time in all, take-home tools included.
• 1-Day Reset — $2,200. The assessment, one six-hour day, and a 30-minute follow-up call. Built for couples who need a course correction, not a rebuild — or premarital couples who want to start with the hard conversations done.
• Booking: a 50% deposit holds your dates; the balance is due on your first morning. You'll receive a Good Faith Estimate in writing before you commit — no surprise charges, same as everything else at Shoreside.
• Scheduling: intensives run on weekdays — most couples take two days off and pair them with the weekend that follows. Kids are in school, the inbox is on autoreply, the office is quiet, and you head into Saturday with new tools and time together to use them.

That's it. If you've compared intensives, you've noticed most practices make you sit through a sales call to hear a price. We'd rather treat you like adults about to spend real money.

Who this is for

• Couples who know something has to change and can't wait half a year of Tuesdays to change it
• Partners with demanding schedules — two clinic days beat twenty appointments to coordinate
• Couples stuck on one recurring fight that weekly sessions keep circling without landing
• Strong marriages headed into a hard season — a move, a baby, a business, a diagnosis
• Premarital couples who want more than a checklist

Who this is not for (we'll tell you honestly)

An intensive is powerful, and power needs the right conditions. If there's ongoing violence or coercion in the relationship, untreated substance dependence, an affair that's still active and undisclosed, or either partner is in acute crisis, an intensive isn't the right level of care — and we'll say so at the consult and help you find what is. If you're genuinely unsure whether you want to stay in the relationship at all, ask us about discernment counseling first; it's designed for exactly that question.

Who you'll be working with

Your intensive is led by Laurie Groh, MS LPC SAS — Shoreside's owner and a clinician for 20+ years, with Level 2 training in both the Gottman Method and Relational Life Therapy (RLT), plus training in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Esther Perel's work on modern relationships. The blend matters: Gottman brings the research-backed structure and skills. EFT works the attachment wound underneath the recurring fight. RLT and Perel bring the directness and the bigger questions — desire, power, what you actually want from each other. Twelve hours is too valuable to spend tiptoeing.

And one more credential that isn't framed on a wall: Laurie has been married since 2008 and is raising four kids. Twenty years as a couples therapist, nearly that long inside a marriage of her own — the mortgage-and-four-schedules version, not the textbook version. When she tells you a hard season is survivable, or that a pattern can actually change, it isn't theory. She's watched it from both chairs.

In person in Milwaukee, or on Zoom

In person, you'll be at our Milwaukee office on Prospect Avenue — coffee's on, and the lake is a short walk away for the breaks. Online, we run the identical structure over Zoom for couples anywhere in Wisconsin, Illinois, or Colorado, with shorter blocks and more breaks because screens are tiring. If you're within driving distance, come in person. The room is part of the work.

A note for our colleagues

If you're a therapist with a couple who's plateaued — or an individual client whose relationship needs concentrated work you don't provide — you can refer for the intensive only. Your client returns to you. Always. We'll send a summary with your client's consent and stay in our lane. Call us and we'll walk you through how the handoff works.

Questions couples ask before booking

"Can two days really change anything?"
Two days won't finish the work — it front-loads it. Research on marathon-format couples therapy shows outcomes comparable to weekly treatment, delivered much faster. You leave with momentum and a plan, not a graduation certificate. That's why the follow-up session is built in.

"Will insurance cover this?"
We'll be straight with you: most plans are limited on couples work, and intensive formats even more so. HSA/FSA funds may apply, and we'll walk through your specific situation at the free consult rather than promise you reimbursement that may not come.

"What if we fight the whole time?"
Then we'll have excellent material to work with. You cannot scare off a therapist who's spent twenty years doing this. The structure is built to move you out of the fight, not to referee it.

"We're not in crisis — is this overkill?"
The best time for an intensive is before the crisis. Couples wait an average of six years too long to get help. Skipping those years is the entire point of this format.