Your questions answered

Yes, we can provide Gift Vouchers tailored to your requirements. Contact us.

Absolutely! We know it's important to be committed to your Relationship. We reward our returning couples with a $200 discount. 

Read about our retreat costs and inclusions here.

These weekend Retreats have been running in their current format since 2013. Prior to that Jane and Sheila ran couples workshops from 2007.

Each Retreat begins on Friday night at 6pm and finishes on Sunday at 3pm. The program includes a range of presentations, workshops, communication and relationship-building exercises.

Meals are included from Friday night dinner through to Sunday lunch (and our participants always say they’re delicious!).

We teach and practice really useful communication exercises and show you lovely rituals that are vital to strengthening your connection with each other and restoring that wonderful in-love feeling.

You will also work together on exercises that create awareness and understanding. What you might call the ‘conflicts’ that arise from these exercises are useful material for showing how to peel away misunderstanding and show the love that lies within each person’s position.

Cancellations are accepted more than 30 days prior to the commencement of the Retreat without penalty. Cancellations made within 30 days of the Retreat will only be refunded or transferred in the event that we are able to rebook your place within the remaining time, in which case, an administration fee of $100 will apply. Cancellations made within 30 days of the Retreat will not be refunded or transferred if we are unable to fill the place with a full paying couple.

The Retreat doesn’t include accommodation, as we find that participants get more value out of the Retreat experience by staying off-site where they have plenty of space and privacy.

We do recommend staying in Port Willunga or one of the nearby towns where you are free from the usual responsibilities of home and family for the weekend.

Have a look at our accommodation options for recommended places to stay in different price ranges.

Our aim is to make the Retreat and its benefits available to as many couples as possible, and so we keep the Retreat cost very affordable.

We also have a payment plan and scholarships available to qualified applicants. Please get in touch with us to learn more about these options.

Your partner may say this if they feel uncomfortable with the idea of opening up and talking about their feelings. We understand that talking about feelings may feel like a huge risk for some people, but we would say ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.

Venturing into the unknown can be scary and uncomfortable at times, but in reality, you are completely safe and your feelings will be respected absolutely.

We believe that working on your relationship in this way will become the norm in future generations.  It's a relatively new social norm to seek education and support in the area of business and professional life.  It's an even more recent cultural shift to seek support and education about raising babies, children and teenagers.  Relationships work is the new frontier and the most exciting and challenging of them all. Welcome to the 21st Century.  We are at the frontier of a whole new way of being happier and more satisfied in our world.

We need to heal the stories of the past in order to evolve and move into a richer and more loving relationship. Each of us has been hurt and each of us has hurt our partners. It’s because we are in a love Relationship that this is even possible. The hurt often originates from early childhood experiences and often has little to do with the present situation or even our present partner.

The Retreat offers you opportunities to become clearer and more honest in your communication with each other. Our experience with many couples shows that this open communication is very healing and freeing and opens the way for a better Relationship rather than ‘stirring things up’.

Our Relationship counsellor, Sheila, has a gentle and compassionate way of guiding couples, which creates a very safe environment for talking about and resolving complex issues.

YES! This Retreat is for everyone, regardless of whether you would rate yourselves a 9 out of 10 on the relationship scale or whether you would regard yourselves as "in trouble".

If you fell in love once, you can find that love again.

It’s possible to uncover the love that exists behind the issues or conflicts you have with each other. By participating in the program you will have a real opportunity to see that your partner is coming from a place of love and your partner will understand that you too are coming from a place of love.

The skills you will learn at the Retreat are ones that you can apply to all the Relationships in your life, including the Relationship you have with yourself, your children and parents.

Absolutely!

If you are already communicating well, you will be able to move your relationship to a higher level of love and commitment. You don’t need to have a problem to solve in order to make your relationship richer and more satisfying. Don’t wait until you feel disappointed with each other. It’s easier to keep the freshness and romance alive than it is to re-kindle it later.

Excellence in your relationship is a goal worth striving for.

Exercises on the Retreat can bring up a range of emotions, which is why there is opportunity to debrief after each exercise with either Sheila or Jane. Sheila is also available for one-on-one support throughout the Retreat.

Some individuals and couples also decide they would like to continue working with Sheila after the Retreat and find this a valuable way to keep exploring and developing their Relationship.

The Retreat is held in small, safe groups of no more than four couples with experts who gently guide you towards that in-love feeling you share with your partner. On the way, you learn the skills to generate deeper connection and clearer communication with each other going forward. So wherever you are at in your Relationship, you will discover ways to strengthen and expand your experience together. Couples often comment that learning Relationship skills together with their partner is an especially bonding thing to do.  You're both on the same page, learning the skills, agreeing on what ideas to incorporate into your lives and importantly, laughing together. We do have a lot of fun, pulling apart these seemingly insolvable issues and supporting couples to find their own creative and workable solutions. While the Retreat feels like a gentle experience, couples achieve a lot in a very short space of time. All it requires is a commitment to your Relationship and the willingness to learn.

As well as attending our Retreat, we encourage you to embrace all helpful Relationship education available — we believe there is no limit to the learning you can have about Relationships. The learn more section of our website also includes links to other Relationship resources and courses that we recommend. Take a look at some of the fantastic TED talks on topics such as infidelity, changing and building positive neural pathways and other topics relevant to building emotional/spiritual/sexual intelligence.

Sheila is available for private counselling sessions for individuals, couples or family groups by appointment. She is also available to run counselling workshops and facilitate groups on various topics.

Jane is always happy to talk about running group sessions and workshops and just generally chat about any questions or concerns you might have.

You can return and attend these Retreats as many times as you choose. Once you have attended a Retreat 1, we have two additional and optional Retreats that are available to you. Retreat 1 is a complete course designed for couples to open up communication, deepen their connection and fall in love again. Having completed a Retreat 1, we found that many couples were choosing to return every year or even more, to recharge, enjoy a romantic weekend away and just have fun together. Because we have so many couples coming back, we created two extra courses: Retreat 2 and Retreat 3. These subsequent Retreats are available only to couples who have completed a Retreat 1.

I think this testimonial says it all "I wish we had the opportunity to attend a couples Retreat when we were in the early stages of our Relationship. We had been together for 16years before we attended our first Relationship Retreat. We said to each other “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” Why doesn’t everyone do this?” We could have been having such an amazing time together instead of relating at somewhere between fabulously and just ok. It was actually quite a shock to find out how much better we could relate to each other when we focused on our Relationship and took advantage of external resources." WK

Each weekend Retreat commences 6pm sharp on the Friday afternoon and concludes at 3pm sharp Sunday afternoon. 

Each couple receives support to explore their own Relationship in a personal and private way. At the same time, the group provides excellent perspective; ie we get to see that we are not alone with our particular issues and that everyone has conflict and hurts to negotiate.  We just need to learn new skills to deal with them productively. There are exercises to do in the group and with your partner and lots of ideas to take away.  No-one is required to do or say anything they are not comfortable with and confidentiality is strenuously reinforced.

There are many opportunities for connection and to practise new communication skills.  We facilitate intelligent group discussions about important issues such as finances, children, sex and allocation of chores in a way that is respectful of each other. 

We encourage you to find accommodation nearby to take the most advantage of being focused on your Relationship. It is far more productive to be away from work and home pressures giving you the opportuntiy to focus on the most important aspect of your life - your Relationship. 

Yes we absolutely will. We have a group discussion about confidentiality at the beginning of the Retreat and create an agreement that is acceptable to everyone. We respect everyone’s right to privacy at all times.