The Couples Intensive at Mallory Creek is not a retreat in the conventional sense. It is a structured, multi-day clinical program specifically designed for couples experiencing entrenched conflict, emotional disconnection, intimacy disruption, or patterns that have persisted despite prior treatment. Led by Dr. Michael Abrams and Dr. Lidia Abrams, both trained directly with Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, the program brings a level of clinical depth, scholarly authority, and specialized expertise rarely available in intensive couples treatment.
Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and one of the most influential figures in the history of sex and couples treatment, is not a distant historical reference on this site. Dr. Michael Abrams and Dr. Lidia Abrams trained and worked directly with Ellis over the course of their careers. The clinical philosophy, the treatment structure, and the theoretical framework underlying the Couples Intensive emerged from that direct collaboration and continued to evolve through decades of advanced clinical practice, scholarly publication, and clinician training. Very few practitioners today can claim a direct professional lineage to Ellis. That lineage is not a credential to be listed in a biography. It is the foundation of everything offered here.
Dr. Michael Abrams and Dr. Lidia Abrams are not generalist therapists offering a retreat experience. They are clinician-scholars whose combined careers span more than three decades of advanced clinical practice, scholarly publication, clinician training, and direct intellectual lineage to one of the founders of modern cognitive and sex therapy. Together, they bring a combined 65 years of clinical experience to the work. Dr. Abrams is the author of multiple books and scholarly publications, an NYU professor, and an international lecturer in cognitive-behavioral therapy, sexuality, and evolutionary psychology. Dr. Lidia has spent more than two decades supervising and training clinicians in couples and complex relational treatment, and currently serves as Executive Director of a licensed nonprofit mental health agency.
For couples experiencing chronic conflict, emotional disconnection, intimacy difficulties, or relationship patterns that have not responded to standard weekly therapy, Dr. Mike and Dr. Lidia offer an intensive multi-day clinical program at their private 180-acre facility in Chemung, NY. The program is not a retreat in the conventional sense. It is a structured, immersive clinical intervention in which both psychologists work simultaneously with both partners integrating cognitive-behavioral, emotional, relational, and intimacy-focused treatment within a concentrated format that weekly therapy cannot replicate.
The program is particularly well-suited for couples experiencing:
Weekly therapy has real limitations. Sessions are separated by days of unresolved conflict, avoidance, and emotional disengagement. Momentum is difficult to sustain. Deeper cognitive and emotional patterns, the ones that actually drive chronic relational distress, often remain untouched beneath surface-level communication work. The Couples Intensive is designed to interrupt those patterns. Its immersive, multi-day structure creates the therapeutic continuity that weekly treatment cannot. Couples work intensively across cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and intimacy dimensions with individually tailored interventions, structured daily sessions, and a treatment plan built specifically around their relationship.
The private setting for the Couples Intensive — Mallory Creek, Chemung, NY
World-Class Psychological Support in a Private Rustic Setting
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