Couples Alive: Living and Loving

Have you strengthened your relationship foundation in Couples Alive: Foundation and are looking for the next step?  Couples Alive: Living and Loving is an opportunity to continue your journey in Haven’s core series for people in primary relationship.  

When we imagine falling in love, we often picture excitement, passion, discovery and great sex. And often, in the beginning, that’s exactly what we get.

But over time, the thrill of falling can quietly give way to familiarity. Life fills in—work, kids, schedules, responsibilities—and love can start to feel more predictable, even flat. Not because anything is wrong… but because something vital has gone unattended. 

Somewhere along the way, we miss the invitation to grow from falling in love to living love.

So how do we reclaim aliveness in the midst of real life?

How do we keep loving vibrant when routines take over and energy gets thin?

In Couples Alive: Living & Loving, couples explore how to reawaken passion and presence by:

• Expressing desire instead of assuming it
• Risking honesty, play, and adventure
• Renewing embodied contact—touch, charge, and felt connection
• Letting everyday moments become doorways to intimacy

This program opens the door to the richness already available in your shared life. In a thoughtful, caring, and engaging setting, couples learn how to gently shake the familiar and welcome the unexpected.

Starting with common relationship challenges—and then going deeper—partners co-create a shared ground that is real, alive, and uniquely theirs. From there, new ways of loving emerge through work and play, tenderness and edge, challenge and pleasure.

This program is for couples who want to:

• Uncover the deeper richness already present in their partnership
• Bring more edge, vitality, and authenticity to daily contact
• Create an atmosphere of kindness, generosity, and curiosity
• Use their “tough stuff” as fuel for growth rather than distance
• Transform familiarity into novelty and freshness
• Rekindle spark in fun, touch, charge, and sex
• Discover how ordinary moments can lead to the new and unexpected

Living and loving don’t have to be separate.

When couples learn to meet each other fully—again and again—love becomes something you don’t just fall into, but something you live.

Couples Alive program highlights:

• 4 focused days together improving, revitalizing, and expanding your relationship
• A chance to get away and visit Gabriola, one of BC’s most accessible gulf islands
• In-depth exploration and application of Haven’s tried-and-tested Communication Model from a distinctly couples perspective
• Many years of continued success with hundreds of diverse couples
• A truly unique approach to relationships developed – and lived – by our founders, Dr. Ben Wong and Dr. Jock McKeen
• A variety of breathing and body-awareness experiences that you can take home to continue nurturing your connection and growth
• Discovery of your boundaries and development of skills to express your wishes, wants and needs with each other
• Opportunities for self-care and/or quality time together with our oceanfront hot tub, onsite bodyworkers, gym, meditation room, forest trails
• The magic of being with a diverse group of couples and the rich opportunity to learn from and relate to each other in this setting
• Something different from your traditional couples counseling sessions – couples often report accelerated outcomes compared to individual sessions (though we believe there’s a place for both)
• Coaching and feedback from experienced and professional leadership who are highly trained both at The Haven and in their own professions
• A program that offers opportunities to continue to learn and grow together…
• We welcome all people in a primary relationship, whether the individuals identify as male, female, or non-binary
• Participants will be invited, but not required, to share what’s going on for them and their relationship in the larger group. As with all Haven programs, how you participate is your choice

Investment:

Earlybird tuition is $1125/person or $2250 per couple.  Earlybird package pricing is available up to one month before the program start date, and starts at $3,470 plus tax per couple and includes a basic room and meals.  Full payment is due one month before the program start date regardless of tuition price.

Please note that Couples Alive: Foundation is a pre-requisite for Couples Alive: Living and Loving.

You can find our cancellation policy here

Schedule:

Your program begins with dinner at 6pm, followed by your first session at 7:30pm

Daily schedule:

• • • Breakfast 8:00 – 9:00am
    • Morning session 9:15am to noon
    • Lunch noon to 1:00pm
    • Afternoon session 3:00 – 6:00pm
    • Dinner 6:00 – 7:00pm
    • Evening session 7:30 – 9:30pm

Afternoon and evening sessions can vary.  Your program finishes with lunch on the last day

Transportation:

If you are travelling to Gabriola as a foot passenger on the Gabriola Ferry a shuttle to The Haven can be requested.  Information on this option will be included in your pre-arrival email.

Recommended Resources:

Here are book titles that can complement and enhance your learning in this program. You can purchase when you are at Haven, or contact us to order. Click to learn more:

• The Beauty of Conflict for Couples: Igniting Passion, Intimacy and Connection in your Relationship by Crismarie Campbell & Susan Clarke

• Joining: The Relationship Garden by Bennet Wong & Jock McKeen

Admission requirements: The student must have the desire and ability to learn.  Must demonstrate a capacity for responsible self care, responsible self organization and sound mental health.  The student must understand and speak English.

This program does not require approval by the registrar of the Private Training Institutions Branch (PTIB) of the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training.  As such, the registrar did not review this program. What does this mean? Click here to learn more.