Some of the most significant shifts in a relationship happen not in weekly sessions

but in concentrated experiences —

when two people step out of their daily life and do something intentional together.

Our couples workshops are built for exactly that. Whether you are just beginning to explore the work, want an accessible entry point into EFT principles, or are ready for the deepest immersive experience available — there is something here for where you are right now. Every workshop is complete on its own. You do not need to start at the beginning or commit to the whole journey. You can enter at any level and walk away with something real. For couples who want the full arc — the program moves from educational foundation through immersive personal work to the deepest levels of intimacy and repair. Each tier requires more. Each one offers more in return. You reach. You heal. You are known.

A complete program arc for couples who want true lasting transformation —

and a genuine starting point for couples who simply want to begin.

Tier 1 - EFT Foundational Couples Workshops

Before We — Friday Evening Internal Work Workshop often offered in coordination with any Tier 1 workshop

Before couples can really change what is happening between them each partner needs to understand what they are bringing into the room.

Before We is a half-day workshop focused entirely on the internal work — your nervous system, your emotional landscape, your side of the cycle. Using the traffic light framework you will learn to recognize your own nervous system state in real time. You will understand the difference between primary and secondary emotions — what you show your partner versus what is actually driving your reaction. And you will begin to understand what vulnerability costs and what it makes possible.

This is the work most couples skip. It is also the work that makes everything else more effective.

We strongly recommend pairing Before We with Hold Me Tight®, Created for Connection®, or Building a Lasting Connection®. Couples who do the internal work first consistently find that the Hold Me Tight conversations land more deeply — because each partner arrives already understanding their own side of the cycle rather than discovering it for the first time in the room together.

Before We can be taken as a standalone experience — but its full power is realized as the opening chapter of your workshop journey.

Hold Me Tight® The language, the map, and the beginning of the work $400 per couple. Most couples sense that something is getting lost between them long before they can name it. Arguments that go nowhere. Distance that grows quietly. A sense of reaching for each other and missing. Hold Me Tight® gives couples the language and the map for understanding what is actually happening — and the first real tools for doing something different. Developed by Dr. Sue Johnson — the founder of Emotionally Focused Therapy and one of the world's leading relationship researchers — Hold Me Tight® walks couples through seven conversations that build a more secure bond. The negative cycle gets named. The raw spots underneath it get understood. The Hold Me Tight conversation — the one most couples have never quite managed to have — gets practiced in a safe, supported setting. This is an educational program, not therapy. It is appropriate for couples at any stage — from those who are simply curious about their patterns to those experiencing real distance or recurring conflict. No prior therapy experience required. Format: Eight weekly two-hour sessions OR a Friday evening and Saturday intensive. Facilitated by the Thrive Team Therapists.

Created for Connection® Hold Me Tight® with a Christian foundation $400 per couple

The official faith-based version of Hold Me Tight® — for couples who want emotional and spiritual intimacy honored in the same room. The same structured seven-conversation program with a Christian foundation woven throughout. For couples whose faith is central to who they are and how they love — this is the version built for you.

Eight weekly two-hour sessions OR a Friday evening and Saturday intensive. Facilitated by the Thrive Team Therapists.

Building a Lasting Connection® Premarital Workshop $400 per couple

For engaged couples who want to build something that lasts — before the hard seasons arrive.

Building a Lasting Connection® goes deeper than logistics and conflict checklists. Using EFT principles it helps couples understand their attachment patterns, their emotional needs, and the places they are most likely to get stuck — before they get stuck there. The couples who navigate marriage well are the ones who built the right foundation before the wedding. This workshop is that foundation.

Ask us about current dates and availability. Facilitated by the Thrive Team Therapists.

Tier 2 Rooted and Reaching - A Deeper Dive into the Hold Me Tight Conversations

Rooted and Reaching The We Thrive Together Signature Couples Intensive Not just learning the work. Watching two people who have done it. Rooted and Reaching is where the work goes deep. Beth Collins, LCSW CTT and Tim Collins, CLC have been on their own EFT journey for years — through the cycle, through the raw spots, through the rocky moments and the Hold Me Tight conversations that changed everything. This weekend they share that journey. Not as a demonstration. As lived truth. Every conversation in the Hold Me Tight model is walked through by Beth and Tim personally — from their own story, with their own wounds and their own shifts named honestly. Couples watch the work modeled not by clinicians performing a script but by two people who have actually done it. This weekend and the intimate format of the group allows for real conversations and questions and answers about how to move through the tough spots. That is a categorically different kind of teaching. The weekend is held at Collins Homestead Retreat in Sperryville, Virginia — a fourteen-acre rural property along Beaver Dam Creek with named coves for private conversations, gender groups Friday evening, and the kind of space that allows something real to happen. Maximum six couples. Individually pre-screened by Beth. Couples leave Rooted and Reaching with language they did not have before, a named cycle, raw spots understood, the Hold Me Tight conversation practiced, and — most importantly — the lived evidence that this work produces something real. Because they have watched it do exactly that. Hold Me Tight® strongly recommended but not required before attending Individual pre-screening by Beth Collins required Maximum six couples per weekend Format: Friday evening 5pm through Saturday 4pm at Collins Homestead Retreat, Sperryville Virginia Led by Beth Collins, LCSW CTT and Tim Collins, CLC

Tier 3 - Held and Healing - Kintsugi - Finding Beauty in the Imperfection

The living practice — deepened. Forgiveness. The gift of touch. The work you have been doing — taken to the places that take the most courage. Held and Healing is for couples who have done the foundational work and are ready to go to the harder places. Not the first attempt at the Hold Me Tight conversation — the accumulated practice. Not the introduction to the raw spots — the wounds that have not fully healed. The weekend opens with a genuine working session on the first four conversations — not a review but a real workshop. Where are you in the practice? What is working and what is getting stuck? How does the cycle still show up and what are you doing differently? Then the weekend moves into Conversation Five: Forgiving Injuries. The attachment wounds that create an invisible wall in the relationship — the specific moments of abandonment or betrayal that, if not healed, keep the system from fully opening. This is the most courageous conversation in the whole model. It requires everything the first four conversations have built. The weekend adds in the beginning of Conversation Six — the gift of touch. The link between emotional safety and physical intimacy. Hope and a first step toward the most defended territory in any relationship. Completion of Rooted and Reaching or equivalent EFT workshop experience required Individual pre-screening by Beth Collins required Maximum six couples. Format: Friday evening through Saturday at Collins Homestead Retreat, Sperryville Virginia Led by Beth Collins, LCSW CTT and Tim Collins, CLC

Tier 4 - Fully Known - Couples Deeper Dive into Connecting Workshop

To be fully seen. To be fully known. To be fully loved. By invitation only. Fully Known is the destination of the whole program arc. It is for couples who have done the work — who have named the cycle, understood the raw spots, made the Hold Me Tight reach, and begun the forgiveness. Couples who have built enough safety, through enough honest conversations, to go to the most defended territory in any relationship. The weekend moves into the Conversation Six: Bonding Through Sex and Touch. Not an introduction but a much deeper conversation — done with the safety that everything built across the previous three workshops makes possible. This is the conversation most couples have never been able to have. Not because they do not want intimacy. Because intimacy at this level requires a kind of emotional safety that most couples have never built. By the time couples reach Fully Known — they have built it. Conversation Seven closes the weekend at a depth that only becomes available after the intimacy work has been done. The Resilient Relationship Story. The Future Love Story. The rituals and rhythms that hold a bond for a lifetime. Completion of Held and Healing required Individual clinical screening by Beth Collins required By invitation only — maximum four couples Format: Friday evening through Saturday at Collins Homestead Retreat, Sperryville Virginia Led by Beth Collins, LCSW CTT and Tim Collins, CLC If you are ready for this conversation, Beth would love to hear from you.

About Collins Homestead Retreat

Tiers 2 through 4 are held at Collins Homestead Retreat — a fourteen-acre rural property along Beaver Dam Creek in Sperryville, Virginia owned by Beth and Tim Collins. The retreat setting is not incidental. The property — with its named coves for private couple conversations, its natural beauty, and its distance from the noise of daily life — creates a container for this work that a conference room or office space simply cannot. Something about being away from home, in a beautiful and intentional space, allows couples to access parts of themselves and each other that everyday life keeps buried. Collins Homestead Retreat is part of what makes the immersive tiers of this program genuinely distinctive.

Not Sure Where to Start

If you are new to this work — Before We or Hold Me Tight® is always the right starting point. Accessible, structured, and genuinely valuable on their own. If you are ready for something deeper — Rooted and Reaching is the flagship experience. Begin the conversation with Beth and she will help you understand whether you are ready and what the right next step looks like. If you have already done the foundational work and want to go further — reach out and tell us where you are. Beth will help you find the right next step.

Every couple deserves a dedicated space to do this work. These workshops make that possible — at every level of readiness and every stage of the journey. Reach out today. Our team responds within one business day. Contact Us About Upcoming Workshops