Couples Retreat for 2025 and 2026
Want to enhance your relationship in just one weekend?
Join our Couples Therapy Retreat weekend held in Illinois and Wisconsin multiple times per year. The cost is $750 per couple. Additional details are listed below.
What Is A Couples Retreat?
Couples retreats help strengthen your relationship by focusing on caring, connection, and shared values. At the heart of the retreat is your love and admiration for each other, whether newly discovered or already strong. The couples therapy retreat includes six group sessions and two fun events within the 16 hours together where you’ll learn communication skills, conflict resolution techniques, and ways to deepen your connection for a healthier relationship.
Before the marriage retreat, each couple will complete an assessment. This helps us understand your relationship and dynamics and gives you a chance to reflect on your partnership.
What Topics Are Covered?
The couples retreat covers important topics like enhancing intimacy, forgiving past hurts (including affairs and trauma), and learning how to heal together. You’ll explore breaking cycles of hurt, improving communication with seven best practices, and understanding the role of self-love for both men and women.
The marriage retreat also focuses on creating a shared vision and building on values like contribution, caring, and connection. We’ll use information from your couples’ assessments to customize the program, addressing the unique dynamics of each relationship and the patterns identified before the retreat.
Photo Gallery from Couples Retreat
Marriage Retreat Testimonials
Couples Retreat Locations and Dates for 2025 and 2026
Reserve your Rooms for Friday and Saturday night stays or just Saturday as your prefer. Each Retreat location has numerous options available for you to arrange your own lodging at the facility or in and around the town. We can provide suggestions based on our past Retreat experiences of best lodging options if you email an inquiry of what you are looking for. Otherwise you will need to secure your own lodging.
Historic Starved Rock Lodge in Oglesby Illinois
- October 25th and 26th, 2025
- January 31st and February 1st, 2026
- April 25th and 26th, 2026
- September 26th and 27th, 2026
The Geneva Inn on the Lake, Wisconsin
- November 29th and 30th, 2025
- March 28th and 29th, 2026
- June 27th and 28th, 2026
- November 20th and 21st, 2026
Couples Retreat Itinerary
Saturday
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Arrival at the designated on site conference room
9:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Meet and Greet and Reading Recap: Introductions made and the Seven Principles of Marriage (Gottman) & Russ Harris’s Act in Love recapped. The value of commitment to contribution, caring, and connection is discussed.
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Bridge Over Muddy Waters: Learn how to repair past hurts and resolve conflicts in the present. Using the past “muddy waters” to help build a bridge to a brighter future together by being emotionally validating, understanding logical perspectives, and connecting deeply. Best practices in communication, listening, and resolving conflict are learned in large and small groups.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Lunch Break
2:00 PM – 3:15 PM
Men and Women in Marriage: We split into men only and women only groups to process the trials and tribulations of your roles in your marriage. Values are identified and discussed.
3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Fun Event: Paint a portrait or other painting representing your partner.
Sunday
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM
Arrival at the designated on site conference room.
9:00 AM -11:30 AM
Emotional Regulation Activities and Forgiveness Ritual: You will learn Guided Imagery, Anger Management, and Breathworks to help regulate triggering moments so you can best manage your selves as needed. A forgiveness act will be learned and then practiced in private with each other.
11:45 AM – 1:00 PM
Understanding the Third Person in the Marriage-The Relationship, Common Cycling, and their Cures: Here we will learn the better ways to manage our cyclical patterns especially when activated from current or past conflicts and use more advanced techniques including externalizing situations instead of “your partner or you” as the problem.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Lunch Break
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Play Together and Stay Together: It is true that couples that play together stay together! Here we will process our friendship depth, fondness, and connection as couples in a group.
3:15 PM – 4:30 PM
Optional Fun Event: Hiking, Boat Tour of Lake, Dinner, or other event paid by the host.
Wesley Dapkus, M.A. LMFT, LCPC
Owner of the White Oak Institute for Growth and Wellness
Meet your Host
Our couples retreat is hosted by Wesley Dapkus, the owner of White Oak Institute. Wesley graduated cum laude with a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from the prestigious Pepperdine University in California. He currently is a licensed clinical professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT). Wesley enjoys spending time with his family, being present in nature, playing and watching sports, taking time to travel, bringing humor in life, and most cultural events.
When working with individuals and families, he uses a collection of therapeutic approaches including Bowenian Family Therapy, Metaframeworks, Person Centered Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Irvin Yalom’s Group Theories, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Psychodynamic Therapy. When working with couples he has a unique approach utilizing aspects of Gottman’s Couples Therapy.
“I’ve witnessed couples fall out of love for various reasons. Yet, it’s possible to reignite love and strengthen your bond. My passion for guiding individuals to mindfulness, centering themselves, and navigating challenges inspired the creation of this couples retreat.” -Wesley Dapkus
How Much Does The Couples Retreat Cost?
The total cost for this event is $750.00 per couple. You will need to reserve your own room.
Registration Process
To sign up for the couples retreat, please fill out the Couples Retreat Registration Form. Kindly specify the dates you wish to attend and we will then notify you of your acceptance into your first or second choice as available. Shortly thereafter you and your partner will receive an email with a few forms to complete the process.
Payment
Once you are registered, we will send you a link to fill out the retreat documents including the relationship dynamics assessment and payment forms to make payments. The first payment will be processed shortly after the forms are received. The remaining balance of $500 will be invoiced in two installments of $250 each, 30 days and 60 days after the initial payment is processed. Alternatively, you may opt to mail a check to our US Postal Address. We strive to remain flexible to accommodate your needs.
