Looking to take your relationship to the next level?
Join Real Connections Counseling for a modernized all-new, all-inclusive couples intensive system we built called "Intimacy Reimagined"!
You'll work hard to build new skills, better knowledge, and stronger intimacy. And you'll have plenty of time to relax, and practice some of that intimacy!
We designed our intensive and retreat to be for couples in a good place. Our activities will get you talking, growing, moving, and sharing as a community of couples, and as a couple.
Discover the joy of real connection.
Stay tuned for our upcoming retreats in 2024!
Looking for a couples intensive & retreat that connects you with your partner? Do you want your best ever marriage? That's exactly what Real Connections will provide you! Our founders, Rick and Monique Elgersma, noticed that relationships everywhere continue to divide over and over again.
That's why the Real Connections Couples Group created a unique, unforgettable, and intense (therefore, "intensive") experience!
They have taken their years of marriage, and myriad experience attending other marriage retreats and intensives, and then improved and modernized the couples intensive.
Unlike other retreats that may have left you feeling underwhelmed, we've taken the best parts of our experiences and added what we knew was missing. "Underwhelmed" is a thing of the past at the Real Connections Couples Group intensive called the "Intimacy Reimagined", a relationship boosting, divorce busting system designed to create the best couples' relationships anywhere!
Our intensives for couples who are already in a good place but ready to take their relationship to new heights. You'll arrive in some of the most beautiful places and homes, and you'll begin the work. We want you to work, talk, move, and share. That's key.
Part of our work together is to help the other couples grow! Relationship is connection & community.
The Real Connections "Intimacy Reimagined" intensives are intimacy, connection and the practice of community.
Our all-inclusive packages mean that we take care of everything from lodging to meals to activities, so you can focus on building new skills and knowledge that you can use right away (You're going to LOVE our private chef, by the way!)
So why wait? Join us for your rise to greatness.
Rick & Monique Elgersma met on a unique and momentous day in February of 1993. They dreamed of a good life together, with kids, financial stability, a house, and a dog - and got married in 1995. But then reality set in... There’s been a 30-year span of death, infertility, surgeries, losses, financial woes, pain, disability, hurt, and more. The 30 years have also been made up of the purchase of their first home, singing together, finishing RAGBRAI in 2007 & 2009, building a counseling practice for couples, traveling together, and the adoption of their beautiful daughter, amongst other wonderful things. Some parts of life have felt nothing short of miraculous, while other parts of real life have laid them bare. Despite the long line of their “for worse” moments, they still call themselves a ‘together-or-not-at-all’ couple because of the “for the better moments.”
Monique & Rick are honored to work with you. They are well educated, both having graduated from Regis University in Colorado with their Master's degrees in Marriage and Family Therapy. Regis remains one of the most respected schools for counseling in the world. Rick also has a Master’s degree in Family Life Education from Oxford Graduate School and they both have maintain training in many couples approaches. You can trust their expertise. When not doing retreats, Rick and Monique are Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) in Iowa and Hawaii, doing co-therapy and running their group practice. Co-therapy is what sets Monique & Rick apart from any other counseling system. Yes, they both spend time together with another couple in the room. This team approach has been a game-changer in therapy for so many people! So, even though a retreat is not therapy - their joint expertise and ability to work well together is a unique asset in a retreat setting as well!
Imagine what it’s like when a real couple in a real marriage get to be your retreat leaders. They will bring a wealth of expertise with them for you, but they also bring a wealth of relationship foibles, mistakes, trials, triumphs and successes from their own marriage to you.
Come join us! Make your best relationship happen here!
Counselors & Therapists in Des Moines, IA