"We recently attended a Full 3 day Couple Retreat with the beautiful Karen Higginbottom. We felt completely at ease the moment we met Karen, she has such a gentle calm and caring nature. But alongside this, the setting of the accommodation in the rainforest instantly put you at ease and feeling like the weight of the world was miles away. It was exactly what we needed as a couple to allow us to slow down and take in the journey of Emotionally focused therapy guided by Karen. We both admit coming into this week we were full of nerves, but we knew our relationship needed this as we had lost ourselves and our connection. We were definitely dancing in the Negative Cycles more than we wanted, getting deeper and deeper into blame of each other and creating more and more scars. With Karen’s guidance we saw sides of each other in depths we’ve never found before. To actually take the time to truly listen to each others hurts and fears and to let go of past hurts and pains. We won’t lie it was a very emotional week on so many different levels. But we can wholeheartedly say it was worth every moment. We actually felt sad to leave on the last morning. 

Since the retreat we are definitely feeling a closeness, bond and strength in our Marriage that we haven’t felt for a long time. We are forever grateful to you Karen. We truly recommend Karen and what she offers with her Couples Retreat Therapy. You have changed our lives and we rate the whole experience 5 Stars! With our deepest appreciation"

"We recently did a full couple therapy retreat with Karen from Gold Coast Relationship Counselling and, although feeling quite daunted at the beginning, was the best investment that we could have made for ourselves, and ultimately for our family and for our future. We had been seeing Karen for standard sessions before we made the decision to commit to a full couple therapy retreat.  The benefit from time with Karen in these standard sessions was enormous. We had learnt to identify the negative cycles we were getting into, how to catch ourselves when we were in them and make changes using tools that we had learnt to stop falling into them. However, we were finding that it was really difficult to keep up the regular sessions with Karen with our busy schedules of life, work and children and knew that our next step was to dedicate a chunk of time on just us, away from all distractions and pressures.

Karen was so caring and thoughtful and guided us through some tough and emotional conversations. We both agree that we have left the retreat feeling so much closer, kinder to one another, able to see and talk about our future together and really connected, all feelings that we hadn’t felt for a very long time. The accommodation and setting was beautiful. We couldn’t have asked for a better place to spend this important time together; quiet and peaceful with a lovely walk down to a flowing creek and waterhole, and still very close to the beach. We created huge and important memories together at this retreat and we have Karen to thank for this. 5 stars without a doubt!"

"My husband and I recently undertook a Mini Couples Therapy Retreat with Gold Coast Relationship Counselling. My husband and I have worked with Karen in her standard sessions previously. As a couple on the retreat, we were able to resolve an issue that had been troubling us both for some time.  After the retreat, my husband and I felt more connected to each other and more understanding. Karen is a very skilled and dedicated Therapist who uses a lot of compassion.

Undertaking the retreat rather than single therapy sessions allowed us to get out of our normal environment, really focus on ourselves without distraction, and progress much faster than single therapy sessions. It was really great that we didn't have to travel anywhere for Therapy. Every time we were scheduled for a session Karen would knock on our door and then we would begin. In between sessions we lounged in the pool, sat on the verandah, and took in the spectacular views. We felt very close to nature and admired the number of Butterflies we saw. I highly recommend Karen’s Couples retreat and give it 5 stars. My husband and I plan to do the full retreat next year as we found it so beneficial."

"My husband and I did an overnight retreat plus several single sessions of couples therapy with Karen. Our time with Karen, and what we achieved as a couple, completely exceeded our hopes and expectations. We felt so comfortable and safe from the very first session and knew immediately that we were in very skilled hands! Karen quickly helped up develop clear and realistic goals for the therapy.

She gently moved us along from getting stuck in unhelpful details, and never let us skim over anything important. We found the emotionally-focused therapy model incredibly useful for helping us identify how and why we kept falling into the same frustrating patterns. We felt completely validated and supported individually as well as much more connected as a couple. We still fall into our old patterns but are getting better at catching it and blaming the “pattern” rather than each other!

Karen’s counselling and / or retreats to anyone wanting to feel more authentic and connected in themselves and in their relationships! We rate the whole experience. 5 stars!"

"I can't speak highly enough of Karen Higginbottom and our recent experience working with her over a 3 day Couples Retreat. She had such insights, compassion and professionalism the whole way through.

We definitely felt we were in very safe and highly skilled hands."

"Karen Higginbottom was so caring and intelligent with her approach to us and our situation.

The intensive 3 day couples retreat was perfect for us as we were able to make ground breaking progress in a short period of time. We were previously struggling to accommodate single sessions spaced out with our other commitments of work, life, etc.

Karen enabled us to learn so much about ourselves and each other over the 3 days. We have never felt more in touch with each other, stronger and in love. We are so so grateful for the incredible impact she has had on our relationship."

"Our 2-day couples retreat with Karen was a really positive experience. The intensive format allowed for clarification and focused attention to destabilizing patterns at depth. We’re now better able to avoid routine conflicts and are working with more skills to heal long-standing disputes and hurt feelings.

Karen guided us skillfully, and we both felt like she was on our side as individuals, and as a couple. The comfortable and spacious accommodation was ideal to support this intensive work – whether walking down to the waterfall and rock pool, sitting on the deck watching dusk fall above the ridge line, or enjoying the morning kookaburra chorus across the valley - the environment was a really memorable counterbalance for our flexibly-held sessions."

"Forever grateful for the 3 day couples therapy with Karen!

So glad we took time-out of our super busy lives to focus on what matters most - our relationship! Karen enabled us to delve deeply into difficult issues and with her kind, calm and caring guidance, helped us recognise negative patterns in our communication and apply practical tools for resolving arguments.

Karen was highly skilled at teaching us about emotional connection that we hope will continue to develop and enrich our marriage into the future."