Fresh Beginnings for Couples

Extremely questionable ethics. My partner and I signed up for the weekend couple's therapy, it got cancelled and Mary said she would roll our payment into one on one therapy sessions with her instead, which we happily took her up on. The intake sounded promising (except she charged us more per session than her website stated) she seemed to pinpoint our issues immediately and have a great sense of our issues. She scheduled weekly appointments with us which ended up all being repetitive- basically asking 'so when X happens, how does that make you feel', over and over with no direction so more like collecting data than any sort of therapy. There was no theory, no remediation, no tactics or tools explained for us to work on- there was no therapy and no education/expertise provided. My partner was getting frustrated, feeling like he was only being interrogated with the same questions every session like Groundhog Day without it going anywhere, but we were trusting the process, as you do with therapists and hope they aren't taking you for a ride. She started organizing another weekend couples therapy (what we had originally signed up for) and started pushing it hard on us. At the end of one of our sessions she stated that she was wondering if my partner might be on the spectrum, as her usual techniques weren't taking effect, she said. She said we would continue to explore/brainstorm that. It was a huge idea put into our head and my partner and I started researching and curious where it would go with her. In our next meeting it was never mentioned again! But instead she continued with her exact repetitive routine, and continued to plug her weekend therapy course saying she thinks it would be hugely beneficial for us and him. This made us angry as she had just said the session before that her techniques weren't showing to be effective for us. (And what 'techniques' is she even talking about/using?) But she continued the same way in the next session, with the same questions that been asked many times, and further advised us to put in another $750 for her weekend course. That was the end for us- we were angry. She did end up giving my partner a referral to someone else for individual therapy. But in the end, in 9 sessions and spending $2,000 we received zero tips to try, no take home exercises/ideas to work on together, no theories presented to help give us a framework (no professional knowledge provided) and no ideas whatsoever on how to move forward. But a bunch of sales plugs to spend even more on something she herself admitted to not working for us. AND because whatever her 'therapy' is wasn't 'working', put into our heads that my partner must be on the spectrum.. does she have ANY experience/expertise in that area to say something like that?? This is a money-hungry therapist who takes advantage of people when they are vulnerable. She's either somewhat senile/not exactly with it, or she's highly unethical, and either way should not be in practice.

I would absolutely never recommend this program or process to any couple that is indeed in need of direction. It is a regurgitation of extremely outdated videos and relies on the couple getting the warm fuzzies" to " just be in love". The practicality and productivity of this program lacks in the sense of Healing. Healing thyself and therefore healing the concept of what a couple and partnership is. There is no guidance in defining terms for understanding. It is all very broadly conceptualized and generalized. This money grabbing program Has no real interest in conducting true synergetic healing within the couple. Research the therapist. How many divorce under the belt? The amount of clients I have heard literally run after a 15 minute consultation

A wonderful service that has provided incredible help to us. Mary is a gifted therapist. Highly recommend the weekend retreat.