Dr. Butch Losey

Deeper Together:
An Experiential Couples Retreat for Connection, Intimacy, and Growth
Scottsdale Arizona
October 15-18, 2026

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October 15-18, 2026

Scottsdale

$2300.00 per couple

Deeper Together: An Experiential Couples Retreat for Connection, Intimacy, and Growth​

This retreat is open to 4 couples.

Deeper Together is not simply a weekend of learning relationship skills—it is an opportunity to experience your relationship differently. While couples will learn practical tools for communication, intimacy, navigating difficult conversations, and maintaining connection, the heart of the retreat is putting those ideas into practice with your partner. Throughout the weekend, you will have intentional time to talk, reflect, connect, and experience one another in new ways.

Rather than spending the weekend listening to presentations about how relationships should work, couples will actively engage with one another. You will explore the intimacy within your relationship, identify strengths and vulnerabilities, practice deeper communication, and have conversations that may be important for healing and growth. Therapists will be available to coach couples through meaningful dialogues, helping you move beyond simply talking about an issue toward understanding what it means to each of you and what you need from one another.

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By Sunday morning, the focus shifts from the retreat experience to the relationship you are taking home. You will identify what you want to continue, establish intentions and goals for your relationship, and develop practices for maintaining connection after the weekend ends. The goal of Deeper Together is not simply to leave knowing more about relationships. It is to leave having experienced greater depth with your partner—and with a clearer path for continuing to create it together.

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Accommodations

Our retreat will take place in a spacious home set in the Scottsdale, overlooking the desert ecology. Each couple has their own room.  The house and outdoor areas are used for small group discussions and private therapeutic work. 

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What's Included

The cost of the retreat includes the clinician's fees, lodging, program materials, breakfast each day but exclusive of airfare/travel to and from airport, lunch and dinner. 

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Pre-Retreat Phone Consultation

Your fee includes a 30 minute phone consultation to plan expectations prior to the retreat.

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Objectives

By the conclusion of the retreat, couples will:​

1. Develop deeper communication skills that promote emotional understanding, connection, and meaningful dialogue.

2. Practice strategies for navigating difficult conversations, including approaching sensitive topics, managing escalation, and co-regulating with one another.

3. Identify and explore important conversations that are necessary for healing, growth, or movement within the relationship.

4. Experience therapist-coached dialogue designed to help partners move beyond surface-level discussion toward greater emotional depth and understanding.

5. Assess multiple domains of intimacy within their relationship and identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth.

6. Practice creating intentional experiences of intimacy, including communicating preferences, boundaries, needs, and desires with one another.

7. Learn and practice savoring as a way of slowing down, noticing, and extending positive moments of connection.

8. Identify vulnerabilities within self, the relationship, and the couple’s broader context that may contribute to disconnection or place stress on the relationship.

9. Develop specific relationship goals and intentional practices for strengthening connection and addressing identified vulnerabilities.

10. Create a plan for sustaining growth beyond the retreat, including regular Temperature Readings, intentional time together, relationship goals, and continued therapeutic support when appropriate.

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Agenda

Thursday

Check in after 4:00. We will gather for our opening orientation discussion at around 6:00pm, We will share wine and appetizers and discuss the weekend goals.

Friday

8:00 Breakfast

9:00-12:00 Session 1: Creating Deeper Conversations: Communication, Connection, and Repair

Meaningful change in a relationship often begins with the ability to have conversations that go beyond the surface. In this opening session, couples will learn and practice communication skills designed to create greater emotional depth, understanding, and connection. These skills will provide an important foundation for the work couples will do throughout the retreat.

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Rather than simply learning techniques for “better communication,” couples will have opportunities to practice having meaningful conversations with one another while receiving guidance and support. Partners will learn how to listen more deeply, express what they are experiencing and needing, and respond in ways that help their partner feel understood and emotionally connected.

We will also focus on managing difficult conversations. Couples will learn how to approach sensitive or emotionally charged topics more effectively, recognize when a conversation is becoming dysregulated, help one another co-regulate, and remain engaged without escalating, withdrawing, or shutting down.

By the end of the session, couples will have a practical framework for approaching both everyday conversations and more difficult relationship issues. Most importantly, they will begin using these skills with one another during the session so they can carry them into the deeper work of the retreat.

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12-1:30 Lunch

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1:30-4:30 Session 2: Deepening Intimacy: Understanding, Experiencing, and Savoring Connection

Intimacy is more than physical or sexual connection. In this session, couples will explore the different ways intimacy is experienced within their relationship and identify both areas of strength and opportunities for greater connection.

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Couples will complete an assessment examining multiple domains of intimacy, such as emotional, physical, sensual, sexual, recreational, friendship, and relational connection. Using what they discover, partners will identify areas they would like to strengthen and begin developing intentional pathways for growth.

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Couples will also have an opportunity for a private experiential activity in which they co-create a couples massage experience. Rather than focusing simply on massage, the experience is designed to encourage partners to communicate about comfort, preferences, boundaries, giving, receiving, and being attentive to one another. Couples will be invited to approach the experience with curiosity and mutual responsiveness.

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Finally, we will introduce the practice of savoring—intentionally slowing down and noticing positive moments of connection rather than allowing them to pass unnoticed. Couples will learn how savoring affection, conversation, touch, shared experiences, and moments of emotional closeness can help deepen intimacy and make positive experiences more meaningful.

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The goal of this session is not simply to understand intimacy, but to help couples notice it, create it, experience it, and intentionally cultivate more of it in their relationship.

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6:00 "Connecting Dinner" Using Savoring Process

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Saturday
9:00 Breakfast in-house 

9:00 -12:00 Conversations That Matter: Dialogues for Healing and Change
 

Every relationship has conversations that need to happen—topics that may have been avoided, repeatedly argued about, or discussed without ever reaching greater understanding or resolution. In this session, couples will identify the conversations that are most important for healing, growth, and moving their relationship forward.

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Using the communication skills developed earlier in the retreat, couples will engage in guided dialogues around these critical topics. Rather than simply talking about the problem, partners will be encouraged to explore what the issue means to each of them, the emotions and needs beneath their positions, and what they most need their partner to understand.

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A therapist will actively coach couples through these conversations, helping partners slow the process down, listen more deeply, express themselves more clearly, and respond to one another in ways that create greater understanding and connection.

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The goal is not simply to resolve a disagreement. It is to help couples experience a different kind of conversation—one that creates depth, promotes healing, and opens new possibilities for their relationship.

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12:00-1:30 Lunch on your own, eat, time to reflect and connect
 

1:30-4:30 Protecting Your Relationship: Understanding Vulnerabilities and Creating Intentional Connection

Every relationship has vulnerabilities. Some come from within ourselves, some develop within the relationship, and others emerge from the circumstances and pressures surrounding us. Understanding these vulnerabilities allows couples to become more intentional about protecting their relationship and creating meaningful change.

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In this session, couples will assess vulnerabilities across three areas: self, relationship, and context. Personal vulnerabilities may include individual patterns, sensitivities, or experiences that affect how we show up with our partner. Relationship vulnerabilities may include recurring patterns of disconnection, unresolved issues, or areas where the relationship needs greater attention. Contextual vulnerabilities include the outside pressures that affect the couple—work, parenting, extended family, schedules, finances, technology, and other demands competing for the relationship's time and energy. Rather than viewing vulnerabilities simply as problems, couples will use what they discover to identify priorities and establish specific goals for strengthening and protecting their relationship.

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We will then return to the practice of savoring introduced earlier in the retreat. Couples will explore the idea of a Four-Hour Vacation—intentionally setting aside a block of time to step away from responsibilities, distractions, and problem-solving and simply enjoy being together. Couples will plan their own Four-Hour Vacation for that evening, considering what would help them slow down, be present, experience pleasure and connection, and intentionally savor their time together.

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The evening becomes an extension of the retreat experience: an opportunity to practice being present with one another rather than simply learning about connection. Couples will be encouraged to slow down, notice what feels good between them, and allow positive moments to last a little longer.

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6:00 The 4-hour Vacation

Sunday

8:00-11:00 Breakfast and -----Taking the Retreat Home: Creating a Path Forward
 

The most important measure of a couples retreat is not simply how connected you feel while you are here, but what happens in the weeks and months that follow. This final session is designed to help couples reflect on what they have experienced, recognize meaningful changes, and create intentional plans for continuing their growth beyond the retreat.

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Couples will complete an outcome assessment to reflect on where their relationship is now compared with the beginning of the retreat. Partners will identify important insights, moments of connection, areas of growth, and vulnerabilities that will continue to need attention.

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We will introduce Temperature Readings, a simple relationship ritual couples can use regularly to stay connected and prevent important conversations from being lost in the demands of everyday life. Couples will practice using the process to share appreciation, discuss concerns, communicate new information, identify hopes and wishes, and talk about what they want to prioritize together.

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Finally, each couple will develop a set of relationship intentions and goals for the weeks and months ahead. Rather than leaving with vague promises to “communicate better” or “spend more time together,” couples will identify specific practices and commitments they want to carry forward from the retreat.

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Couples will also consider what ongoing support would be helpful, including continued work with their therapist when appropriate. The goal is to leave the retreat not only feeling more connected, but with a clear understanding of how you will continue creating, protecting, and strengthening that connection when you return home.

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Call to Discuss

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Schedule your Retreat

Dr. Butch Losey​

513-688-0092

butchlosey@waybridgecounseling.com