What If Months of Therapy
Could Happen in Days?
Learn how to prepare, run, and market two- and three-day RLT couples intensives designed to create deep, focused transformation for the couples you serve.
Help clients make the kind of progress that can take months in weekly therapy, while building a more focused, sustainable, and profitable practice.
14-day money-back guarantee
Lifetime access to the complete training and course resources
With Desirae Ysasi & Dr. Priscilla Short
When Weekly Sessions Stall Progress
For couples at a make-or-break point, it’s often too painful to keep surfacing their pain then setting it aside each week.
Important conversations start, emotions surface, insight builds… and then the process pauses. A week later, the same dynamic reappears. Progress stops and starts.
And for therapists and coaches, prolonged work in these cases carries its own cost. Holding couples on the brink for months at a time can be emotionally taxing and exhausting – especially when the work keeps circling without resolution.
Couples Intensives allows you to introduce what Terry Real describes as a “mechanism for correction”: couples experiencing rupture and repair safely in real time. They’re not just talking about change, they’re
practicing it.
They learn what it feels like to soften, take responsibility, reconnect, and be met. This is often what’s missing in relationships, and it’s hard to achieve fully in a 50–90 minute sessions.
“Introducing intensives into my practice has transformed the way I can work with couples – and the depth of change I’m able to support…
At first, I worried that intensives might feel overwhelming or exhausting. In reality, I’ve found the opposite – I often leave feeling energised. This way of working has deepened my clinical impact and continues to be incredibly rewarding.”
Victoria Shalet
Psychotherapist and Certified RLT Therapist
RLT Couples Intensives Offer A Powerful, Accelerated Pathway for Relationship Healing
… when held with clarity, structure and skill
Evidence shows intensives can produce stronger results than weekly therapy…
Research by Boegner & Zielenbach-Coenen (1984) found that couples who received the same total hours of therapy in a condensed, intensive format showed greater improvement and lower relapse than those who received weekly sessions or no therapy at all.
In Relational Life Therapy, intensives are intentionally organized around the 3 phases of the model. This arc provides containment. It allows couples to move through insight, regulation, and integration in a sustained way – rather than opening something that can’t be safely held.
Structure doesn’t only protect the couple. It protects you. A defined arc, clear pacing, and intentional integration reduce the stop-start nature of crisis work and support steadiness rather than prolonged strain – and burnout.
The RLT Couples Intensive Model will help you do exactly that. Across five core modules and a recorded Q&A, you will gain the trusted framework to facilitate deeply transformative Couples Intensives.
- Your clients will gain the relief and reconnection they desperately seek.
- You will gain a deep sense of fulfillment and enthusiasm for your work as you see the powerful results unfold.
“Couples Intensives provide hope, momentum, and real change for your clients. For you they provide a container to deliver truly effective work, see the results unfold before you – it’s a deeply rewarding way to work.”
RLT Couples Intensives allow you to go deep to help couples understand what’s blocking intimacy and do the necessary healing and skill -building to create lasting change ”
How This Training Will Help You
Move From Hesitation to Confidence
Intensives can feel daunting. The stakes are high. This training gives you a clear structure for assessing readiness, pacing the work, and moving through each phase of RLT with intention.
Create Momentum & Lasting Change
Instead of stopping and starting week after week, you will have the space to go deep and guide couples through the full arc of RLT so they leave with insight and skills to continue nurturing their relationship.
Protect Your Energy and Reduce Burnout
Prolonged crisis work can be exhausting. Intensives, when paced intentionally, provide contained depth rather than chronic strain. Clear structure supports steadiness – for you as well as for the couple.
Increase Your Impact Without Increasing Your Caseload
Because a single intensive often equates to several months of weekly work in both outcomes and fees, you can work deeply while optimizing your time, reducing volume without reducing income.
Expand Your Offering With Confidence
You’ll gain a clear framework for how to deliver intensives with skill, structure, and care – including how to follow up responsibly – so you have a clear roadmap to refer to without having to guess or improvise.
“My couples make significant progress in a short window of time…
My clients come in feeling pain and leave having gained needed understanding, a shared language for their relationship, and renewed hope for connection, all within one weekend.
This format is ideal for clients seeking transformative relational work that makes an immediate difference
in their lives.”
Jessica Johnson
LMFT-Associate; LPC-Associate, Certified RLT Therapist
What You’ll Learn
Across five core modules and a recorded Q&A, you’ll learn how to assess readiness, structure the work, apply each RLT phase, close responsibly, and make Couples Intensives a sustainable part of your practice.
Module 1:Assessing Readiness and Appropriateness
Preparing for the work and deciding when an intensive is a good fit
Preparing for the work and deciding when an intensive is a good fit
In this module, you’ll learn all you need to get started with Couples Intensives. You’ll explore the foundational aspects, including:
- What a Couples Intensive is and the benefits of offering them (for you and your clients).
- Which clients are suitable for intensive work
- What information to collect prior to starting the work, including how to screen for preconditions and contraindications
Module 2:Creating the Container and Waking Up the Couple
Setting up the work, gathering data, and finding leverage
Setting up the work, gathering data, and finding leverage
You’ll learn how to create a container for the work ahead and conduct RLT Phase 1 in an intensive setting, including:
- How to gather meaningful data through the 8 lenses and identify the couple’s dance.
- Finding leverage and getting “buy-in” from the couple.
- Addressing the common questions in Phase 1 in an intensive setting:
- Should you do any 1:1 work in this phase?
- What if you can’t identify the Stance–Stance–Dance or blatant/latent dynamics?
- What if there’s no leverage or you can’t get buy-in?
Module 3:Working With the Adaptive Child
Inner-child work and Relational Mindfulness in an intensive format
Inner-child work and Relational Mindfulness in an intensive format
You’ll explore when to move into RLT Phase 2 and how to pace relational trauma work, including:
- Working with the Adaptive Child and each partner’s historical relational trauma.
- Helping couples to cultivate Relational Mindfulness.
- Whether or not to do inner child work with both partners by the end of the Intensive.
- How to differentiate the relationship wound and the historical wound.
- If – and how – you can use other modalities for trauma work?
Module 4:Teaching Skills and Closing the Work
Skill-building, holding ambiguity, and concluding the intensive
Skill-building, holding ambiguity, and concluding the intensive
You’ll learn how and when to move into RLT Phase 3 work and bring the Intensive to an appropriate close, including:
- How to determine which relational skills your clients need and create a plan for teaching them.
- Working with the Adaptive Child when clients get triggered in real-time.
- How to conclude the Intensive:
- Amplifying positive change and building hope.
- Referrals for further work that was identified (e.g., addiction support, medication management for ADD, or mood disorders).
- Holding ambiguity – what to do when some issues can’t be resolved within the time frame.
Module 5:Making Intensives Sustainable and Profitable
Fees, supervision, and preventing burnout
Fees, supervision, and preventing burnout
In this final module, you’ll explore the practical considerations for running Intensives, including:
- The costs of running them and what are realistic fees to charge.
- How to structure the days to maximize the time.
- What post-intensive follow-up care to offer.
- Self-care practices for you to prevent burnout and make the work sustainable and rewarding.
- Peer supervision and support to strengthen your Intensive offering over time.
- Special topics: working intensively with infidelity and “should I stay or go?” cases.
Module 6:Practitioner Stories and Implementation Q&A
Getting started, staying focused, and integrating intensives into your practice
Getting started, staying focused, and integrating intensives into your practice
Hear two RLT clinicians reflect on delivering their first intensives, then join Desirae and Priscilla for implementation Q&A covering focus and structure, transitioning current couples, summary letters and follow-up, peer support, presenting the offer, and the practical decisions that help intensive work become sustainable.
About Your Teachers
Desirae Ysasi
Desirae has two decades of experience in relationship counseling. She became a Certified Relational Life Therapist in 2018 trained directly by Terry Rea.
She joined the faculty of the Relational Life Institute in 2022 and now serves as Director of Training & Certification, overseeing the global certification program.
She has been the owner of Ysasi Counseling since 2014 and runs Relational Life Texas – the first group practice focused on RLT.
Dr. Priscilla Short
Priscilla Short is an RLT-Certified Couples Therapist and accredited EMDR therapist, working with couples and families.
Based in London, Priscilla was among the first therapists to train in RLT in the UK. Known for her relational and authentic style, Priscilla has developed an expertise over the past 15 years through working in the NHS (inpatient and outpatient settings, including with eating disorders, foster families and looked after children), private practice and the third sector with Relate.
A Note From Priscilla
In this brief video, Dr. Priscilla Short shares what RLT Couples Intensives have done for her practice and why she’s thrilled to deliver this training to help you and your clients enjoy similar results.
Priscilla Short
RLT Certified Relational Therapist
What Practitioners Say About The RLT Couples Intensive Model
Who is this for?
The RLT Couples Intensive Model is designed for clinicians who want a structured, responsible framework for offering Couples Intensives.
This training is designed for you if:
- You're trained in Relational Life Therapy and understand its core concepts and 3-phase model.
- You work with couples facing betrayal, rupture, high conflict, or the real possibility of separation.
- You want a therapeutic container that allows couples to move through escalation, shutdown, and repair without being constrained by shorter, weekly sessions.
- You're ready to expand your practice and meet the growing demand for intensive couples therapy.
- You want the structure, skills, and confidence to offer this powerful modality sustainably and effectively.
Important to know: This course teaches the clinical and practice framework for delivering Couples Intensives. It does not confer certification or include Continuing Education credits.
Newer to RLT? We recommend taking at least some foundational training in Relational Life Therapy and gaining a basic understanding of its three phases before beginning this course.
“Couples intensives are what RLT was built for…
And that’s what I did. Couples would come to me and we’d do deep work over the course of two days. At the end we’d decide together whether they were back on track or getting a divorce.
What I discovered was how effective that way of working could be – 9/10 couples came back from the brink after those two days.
In the kinds of make-or-break cases I see, it can be detrimental to let therapy drag on. These couples simply cannot afford to carry the heartbreaking pain of disconnection over months – and it’s a heavy load for you to carry as their therapist, too.
Couples Intensives provide a container for deep, focused, truly transformative work that provides relief, renewed hope, and connection for your clients.
And for you? A deep sense of fulfilment as you watch the momentum build and real change take place in such a short timeframe.
This training is designed to help you translate RLT into an intensive model with clarity and confidence. Desirae and Priscilla bring depth, steadiness, and thoughtful guidance to this work, and I’m pleased to see more RLT therapists offering intensives responsibly and effectively.
Warmly,
Enroll Today
Enroll in the self-paced course and learn the art and structure of RLT Couples Intensives for breakthrough couples therapy.
- Six self-paced course modules with Desirae Ysasi and Dr. Priscilla Short
- A structured framework for designing and pacing RLT Couples Intensives
- Downloadable handouts to support you in running your intensives
- Recorded teaching and a practical Q&A session
- Transcripts and audio companions for flexible learning
- Access through the private RLI learning platform
Choose your payment option
One-Time Payment
$395
Pay Monthly
3 × $137
$411 in total
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there any live elements to this course?
No. The evergreen course is fully recorded and self-paced. It includes five core teaching modules plus the recorded practitioner stories and implementation Q&A in Module 6, along with downloadable resources.
What is included in the course?
Enrollment includes six course modules, recorded teaching, a recorded Q&A, downloadable handouts, transcripts, and audio companions.
How do I access the course after enrolling?
After enrollment, check the email address used at checkout for your receipt and course-access instructions. Existing learners can sign in to the RLI learning platform with that email address.
Is this suitable for practitioners who don’t work with couples?
This course focuses on helping practitioners run intensives for couples in romantic relationships. It does not teach intensive work with individuals, families, or non-romantic relationship systems.
How much previous RLT training do I need?
We recommend taking at least some foundational training in Relational Life Therapy and having a basic understanding of its three phases before beginning this course.
Is this suitable for couples looking for relationship support?
No. This is professional training for therapists and coaches who want to facilitate Couples Intensives. Couples seeking support for their own relationship should explore RLI relationship programs or use the Find a Therapist directory.
How high is the demand for Couples Intensives?
It’s consistently growing. Couples in crisis simply can’t afford to spread therapy over months, even years. Their preference is much more often to accelerate the process with intensive work. It’s not only make-or-break couples who may seek intensives – couples with strict schedules and busy lives may struggle to commit to regular, weekly therapy and find the intensive model is a better fit for their lifestyle.
Won’t I, or my couples, burn out with such intensive work?
Intensive work has enormous potential – but it also carries risk. Many clinicians hesitate for good reason, wondering if the intensity might destabilise the relationship, or if they’re equipped to hold that level of escalation, pain, or relational trauma for hours/days at a time.
You’re right to ask that question. Without structure and clear pacing, time can amplify chaos rather than create clarity. That’s why this course teaches you a sustainable, effective framework that protects your energy and your clients from becoming overwhelmed.
Are Continuing Education credits included?
No. Continuing Education credits are not currently included with the evergreen course.
What does enrollment cost?
Enrollment is $395 as a one-time payment or three payments of $137.
Can I learn on my own schedule?
Yes. The recorded lessons and course resources are designed for self-paced study through the private RLI learning platform.
What is your refund policy?
We’re confident you’ll love The RLT Couples Intensive Model, but we offer a 100% money-back guarantee for your peace of mind. If, for whatever reason, you’re not completely satisfied, please contact us at support@terryreal.com within 14 days of purchase and we’ll issue you a full refund, no questions asked.
I still have questions. Who do I contact?
Please email support@terryreal.com and our team will help.
Learn The RLT Couples Intensive Model for Breakthrough Couples Therapy
Increase your impact without increasing your caseload
Self-paced online course
