Private Marriage Intensive
For Couples In Crisis
A focused 3–5 day marriage intensive for couples facing infidelity, betrayal, separation, or the threat of divorce.
When Your Marriage Is In Crisis
Waiting Months For Therapy Is Not An Option.
The Private Marriage Intensive is a structured 3–5 day intervention designed for couples facing infidelity, betrayal, or the threat of divorce. Instead of months of weekly counseling, we guide couples through a focused, private process that stabilizes the marriage, restores trust, and establishes a clear path forward.
Confidential • By Application Only • Customized
Why Some Couples Need More Than Weekly Sessions
Weekly counseling can be helpful for many couples. But when a marriage is in active crisis, one hour at a time may not feel like enough.
When infidelity has been discovered, divorce is being discussed, trust has been shattered, or communication has completely broken down, couples often need a more focused process. A private marriage intensive gives couples dedicated time, structure, and guidance to address the issues that are putting the relationship at risk.
The goal is not to rush healing or ignore the depth of the pain. The goal is to create enough time and structure to slow the crisis down, have the conversations that matter, and begin rebuilding the foundation of the relationship with intention.
The Private Marriage Intensive was designed for couples who need concentrated support, not scattered conversations.
Who Is a Private Marriage Intensive For?
A private marriage intensive may be the right fit if:
- You are trying to recover after infidelity or betrayal.
- Divorce has been discussed, threatened, or filed.
- Trust has been broken and you do not know how to rebuild it.
- Weekly sessions have not created enough progress.
- Communication has become defensive, avoidant, or explosive.
- One or both partners feel emotionally checked out.
- You feel stuck in the same painful cycle over and over again.
- You need focused help before making a permanent decision about the marriage.
- You want a private, structured process instead of a group retreat.
- You are ready to do serious work in a confidential setting.
If your marriage feels like it is at a turning point, a private marriage intensive can help you stop reacting to the crisis and begin working through it with a clearer process.
How the Private Marriage Intensive Works
The Private Marriage Intensive is a structured, time-bound experience designed to address marital crisis efficiently and privately. Instead of spreading progress across months of weekly sessions, this process compresses focused relationship work into a 3–5 day experience.
Each intensive follows a deliberate progression guided by Couples Academy’s Quantum Leap Transformation Method. The process is designed to help prevent emotional escalation, reduce unfinished conversations, address the root issues driving the crisis, and create a practical plan for moving forward.
Most intensive days run approximately 8–12 hours, depending on the complexity of the situation and the depth of work required.
Each intensive follows a deliberate progression guided by Couples Academy’s Quantum Leap Transformation Method. The process is designed to help prevent emotional escalation, reduce unfinished conversations, address the root issues driving the crisis, and create a practical plan for moving forward.
Most intensive days run approximately 8–12 hours, depending on the complexity of the situation and the depth of work required.
Step 1: Confidential Consultation
The process begins with a confidential consultation to understand what is happening in your relationship, what has led to the crisis, and whether a private marriage intensive is the right next step.
Step 2: Pre-Intensive Preparation
Once your intensive is scheduled, you will receive the required paperwork and preparation steps. This helps clarify the major issues, goals, and priorities before the intensive begins.
Step 3: Private Intensive Experience
Over 3–5 focused days, Couples Academy guides you through structured individual and couple work based on the crisis you are facing. This may include affair recovery, trust rebuilding, communication repair, emotional healing, accountability work, and future planning.
Step 4: Action Plan and Next Steps
By the end of the intensive, the goal is to leave with greater clarity, practical tools, and a stronger understanding of what rebuilding the marriage will require.
Choose The Right Intensive
Not every marriage requires the same level of intervention. Some couples need immediate crisis stabilization. Others need deeper individual healing. Some are ready for a complete marriage restoration process.
Each intensive is designed for couples in crisis, but the right option depends on the depth of repair, healing, and restoration needed.
Compare Private Marriage Intensive Options
Each intensive is designed for couples in crisis, but the right option depends on the depth of repair, healing, and restoration needed.
| Intensive | Best For | Main Focus | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Day Intensive | Couples in immediate crisis after infidelity or betrayal | Crisis stabilization, full disclosure, trust repair, affair recovery | A clearer path forward and a stabilized foundation |
| 4-Day Intensive | Couples who need affair recovery plus individual healing | Betrayed partner healing, unfaithful partner accountability, emotional patterns | Deeper personal awareness and stronger repair work |
| 5-Day Intensive Most Comprehensive | Couples ready for complete marriage restoration | Affair recovery, individual growth, shared values, communication, intimacy, future planning | A structured plan for rebuilding the marriage long term |
The 3-Day Intensive
Affair Recovery & Crisis Stabilization
The 3-Day Intensive is designed to help couples stabilize the crisis and begin resolving the affair or betrayal at its root.
Most couples arrive overwhelmed. Emotions are high, trust has been broken, and both partners may feel uncertain about the future of the marriage. Rather than rushing into surface-level communication tools, this process focuses directly on the betrayal itself, the damage it caused, and the emotional stability needed to move forward with clarity.
During this process, the affair is not minimized or avoided. It is brought into the light in a structured, guided way. Emotional triggers are addressed, truth is established, and both partners are supported in moving out of reactivity and into a clearer understanding of what repair requires.
By the end of the 3-Day Intensive, the goal is for the crisis to feel less chaotic and for the couple to have a clearer path forward.
STAGE ONE:
DISCOVERY OF THE AFFAIR
STAGE TWO:
FULL DISCLOSURE
STAGE THREE:
AFFAIR-PROOFING YOUR MARRIAGE
STAGE FOUR:
THE PATH TO TRUE FORGIVENESS
STAGE FIVE:
RESTORING TRUST & OVERCOMING TRIGGERS
STAGE SIX:
REBUILDING INTIMACY IN YOUR MARRIAGE
The 3-Day Intensive Focuses On:
Stage One: Discovery of the Affair
Understanding what happened, how the discovery impacted the relationship, and what must be addressed first.
Stage Two: Full Disclosure
Creating a structured process for truth, transparency, and the conversations that cannot continue being avoided.
Stage Three: Affair-Proofing the Marriage
Identifying vulnerabilities, boundaries, patterns, and choices that contributed to the betrayal or created risk in the relationship.
Stage Four: The Path to True Forgiveness
Understanding what forgiveness does and does not mean, while creating space for grief, accountability, and repair.
Stage Five: Restoring Trust & Overcoming Triggers
Helping the betrayed partner begin managing triggers while helping the unfaithful partner respond with consistency, patience, and accountability.
Stage Six: Rebuilding Intimacy in Your Marriage
Beginning the process of reconnecting emotionally, relationally, and physically in a way that feels safer and more intentional.
The 4-Day Intensive
Affair Recovery + Individual Healing
The 4-Day Intensive includes the full 3-Day affair recovery process, where the betrayal is addressed, the crisis is stabilized, and clarity begins to emerge.
By Day 4, the focus expands beyond the affair itself. At this stage, Couples Academy introduces a dual-path approach: one path for the betrayed partner and one path for the unfaithful partner.
While some work is done together to rebuild understanding and connection, each individual is also guided through a personalized process of healing, growth, and self-awareness. This matters because lasting restoration is not only about resolving what happened. It is also about understanding the emotional patterns, wounds, triggers, and choices that shaped the relationship before and after the crisis.
Couples Academy may use tools such as the Enneagram to help each partner better understand core patterns, emotional triggers, stress responses, and relational behavior under pressure.
For the betrayed partner, this work can help create emotional grounding, clarity, and a path out of pain, insecurity, and overwhelm. For the unfaithful partner, it can create deeper awareness, accountability, empathy, and the ability to respond with consistency rather than defensiveness.
One Journey. Two Paths
For The Betrayed Partner
- How to stabilize emotions and regulate your nervous system
- How to process betrayal trauma without losing yourself
- How to overcome triggers, intrusive thoughts, and emotional flooding
- How to rebuild identity, confidence, and personal self-worth
- How to release self-blame, shame, and unhealthy comparison
- How to navigate anger, grief, and emotional overwhelm
- How to set boundaries that create safety and self-respect
- How to move beyond hypervigilance and regain internal peace
- How to communicate pain without escalating conflict or tension
- How to rebuild trust without abandoning yourself again
- How to rediscover your voice, needs, and personal power
- How to find clarity, direction, and emotional stability
For The Unfaithful Partner
- How to fully end the affair and eliminate ties
- How to develop honesty, transparency, and personal integrity
- How to understand deeper patterns driving your destructive choices
- How to take ownership without defensiveness or blame-shifting
- How to process guilt and shame into meaningful growth
- How to build empathy and understand your partner’s pain
- How to respond to triggers with patience and consistency
- How to regulate emotions and break unhealthy behavioral patterns
- How to rebuild credibility through consistent aligned actions
- How to lead the process of restoring safety and trust
- How to become emotionally available, present, and accountable
- How to grow into a healthy, trustworthy, committed partner
The 5-Day Intensive
Complete Marriage Restoration
The 5-Day Intensive includes the full 4-Day process: affair recovery and crisis stabilization, followed by deeper individual healing and personal transformation.
By Day 5, the betrayal has been addressed, emotional stability has begun to develop, and both partners have gained greater self-awareness. This creates the foundation needed to shift the focus from what went wrong to what must be built next.
At this stage, the work centers on rebuilding the marriage itself.
Couples Academy helps couples establish a shared value system, align around what matters most, and create a foundation for a healthier long-term relationship. This includes practical systems for the areas where many marriages break down, including communication, finances, intimacy, family dynamics, roles within the home, emotional needs, and conflict resolution.
The goal is to help couples function as a unified team, navigate challenges without returning to old dysfunction, and build a relationship that is both stable and deeply connected.
By the end of the 5-Day Intensive, couples leave with a clearer vision, defined structure, and a strategic plan for rebuilding the marriage long term.
What Couples Can Expect to Work Through
Every couple arrives with a different story, but many couples come to the Private Marriage Intensive because they are struggling with:
- Infidelity and affair recovery
- Broken trust
- Betrayal trauma
- Divorce threats
- Separation uncertainty
- Emotional disconnection
- Constant conflict
- Communication breakdown
- Lack of intimacy
- Resentment and unresolved pain
- Defensiveness, avoidance, or blame
- Financial, family, or household tension
- Uncertainty about whether to stay or leave
- Difficulty rebuilding after repeated hurt
The intensive is designed to help couples stop circling the same unresolved issues and begin working through them with structure, honesty, and direction.
Why Couples Choose Couples Academy
When a marriage is in crisis, couples need more than general advice. They need a private, focused environment where both partners can be heard, challenged, supported, and guided toward practical next steps.
Couples choose Couples Academy because the intensive process is:
Private
The work takes place in a confidential setting designed for focused relationship repair.
Structured
The process follows a clear progression so difficult conversations do not become endless arguments or emotional shutdowns.
Customized
Each intensive is built around the couple’s specific situation, crisis, goals, and next steps.
Focused on Real Repair
The work is not just about talking. It is about accountability, emotional healing, trust rebuilding, communication, and practical change.
Designed for Couples in Crisis
The intensive is specifically created for couples facing serious relationship challenges such as infidelity, separation, betrayal, or the threat of divorce.
Client Experiences
It’s been transformative in a personal and individual way. Our relationship is exponentially stronger. There’s no better program in the entire country.
Michael and Amanda May
Fort. Lauderdale, Florida
When we came to the intensive we were separated, living in separate homes. We come from a history of broken marriages and divorces and Couples Academy showed us there’s another way.
Dr. Charles and Tiana Rogers
Salt Lake City, Utah
Hasani & Danielle Pettiford Have Been Featured On America's Leading Networks
28+ years · 18 published books · Trusted by couples worldwide
The nation's #1 Infidelity Recovery Specialists — Hasani & Danielle Pettiford
Frequently Asked Question
Here are a few answers to our most common questions
If one or more of the following statements apply to you, we recommend that you consider the Intensive.
- I often feel angry, resentful, embarrassed or depressed.
- My partner and I are unemotional and disconnected from each other.
- My partner and I experience the constant threat of divorce.
- The pain of infidelity has struck our relationship.
- We are in constant conflict regarding both major and minor issues.
- There are major trust issues in our marriage that we cannot overcome.
- We have lost our physical intimacy in the marriage.
- My partner and I have grown apart and share very little in common.
- Our confrontations have gotten physical and I no longer feel safe.
- I’ve lost my identity and the ability to truly express myself in the relationship.
- There are inappropriate relationships that are maintained with opposite-sex friends that put the marriage at risk.
- We have major conflict over finances.
- I see myself passing my own suffering on to my children.
The Marriage Intensive is conducted as a 3-day comprehensive program. The days are full and structured with both couple and individual sessions, couples connect (structured assignments are given), and ample time for meals.We strongly recommend that you spend the two days following the Intensive as time for personal reflection and implementation. Please review our 3-Day Intensive Itinerary.
Hasani Pettiford is the primary coach. He provides instruction and personalized individual guidance to ensure that each partner progresses successfully through the Intensive and learns tools for ongoing development. Danielle provides counsel and instruction as well duiring particular portions of the intensive. We combine the best of individual and couple work to support your relational journey, which is the core of the work. Because we take a customized approach to each couple there may be times when members of our practitioner team will work with you based upon a specific need.
You are highly recommended to be as casual as possible. Bring comfortable clothing for 3 days (jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, work-out clothing, swim gear, etc.,) Additional equipment that will be helpful are tablets, laptops. If there are particular food items/snacks that you like feel free to stock the kitchen as desired.
Couples Academy offers three (3) payment options. Option #1: Paid in Full upon booking. Option #2: Half (50%) down and the balance due at the start of the intensive. Option #3: Half (50%) down and the balance due within 60 days of the initial deposit.
There are two options when considering the location of your private marriage intensive. A) Couples can travel to our retreat center in Milton, Georgia. It’s a part of the greater Atlanta area. The retreat center is extra large studio suit bedroom home. The entire bottom floor of the residence isa closed off retreat area replete with a queen-size bedroom, full bathroom, spacious living room, full kitchen, movie room, game room and lounge area. Sessions will take place in different areas of the home including: the office, the zen den and the retreat living room. B) If travel costs, work schedules or child-care issues prevent you from traveling to Atlanta, a Couples Academy coach with travel to your home state to conduct the intensive. A hotel will be secured in close proximity of your home for an easy and fast commute.The cost of the travel expenses (which covers the cost of flight and ground transportation) will be added to your final bill. Lodging will be paid for by Couples Academy. All sessions are held in the suite area of the hotel room.
Once you secure a date, you will be provided with all of the necessary paperwork to get started. Once complete, we will schedule a 90-minute Pre-Intensive video session. The virtual meeting will provide an opportunity for both you, your partner and the coach to discuss specific relationship issues and set goals and objectives for the 3-day Intensive.
It is frequently necessary for individuals to continue their work with a coach/counselor on an ongoing basis in order to consolidate the gains they have made during the Solo Spouse Intensive weekend. You will receive an aftercare email with specific instructions to guide you on a self-paced/self-managed course. Most individuals continue their recovery process by enrolling in one of our aftercare programs: Foundry, Moving Forward, UnEarthed and/or Foundry program.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
You do not have to keep repeating the same painful cycle.
If your marriage has been affected by infidelity, betrayal, emotional distance, separation, or the threat of divorce, a Private Marriage Intensive may help you take a more focused and intentional next step.
Start with a confidential consultation to discuss where your relationship is now, what you are facing, and whether a 3-Day, 4-Day, or 5-Day intensive may be the right fit.
Confidential • By Application Only • Customized
Important Note
Couples Academy provides relationship coaching, marriage support, and educational resources. If you are in immediate danger, experiencing abuse, or facing a mental health emergency, please contact emergency services or a qualified crisis resource in your area.