Ripening Retreat for Couples: The Gateway to Extraordinary Sex

Workshop

March 22, 2025, 9:30AM – 6PM Warwick, NY

Extraordinary sex stays with you for days. Are you interested?

We specialize in working with committed couples who want more.

Maybe you’re having satisfying sex but you yearn for something deeper, more complex. Sex that’s mind blowing. Healing and transformational.

Maybe sex in your relationship is stressful, painful, and/or disappointing.You don’t want to spend the rest of your life this way.

You might even be questioning how sexual you really are.

Or maybe you haven’t had sex with your partner in a long time and there are a lot of challenging emotions that come with wanting to bring this part of your relationship back online.

Our clients share their sexual fears, doubts and yearning with us and for decades we have helped them ripen their capacity for sexual growth.

This workshop is our way of sharing the work we do in our offices with a wider audience.

Let us take you on a dynamic 7 hour journey towards extraordinary sex.


We refuse to water anything down.

We don’t pretend there is a fast track to extraordinary! The kind of sex you are looking for takes time. It demands that couples dig deep. Extraordinary sex in a committed relationship can require rigorous study of yourself and your partner. It takes creativity and play. It pushes couples to acquire an appetite for uncertainty and an ability to collaborate as if their lives depend on it. So, yeah, it takes more than 7 hours but how you begin means everything!


This workshop is a sacred beginning. An initiation. A welcome home to yourselves and each other.

You will learn how to slow way down in a sensual context. You will learn what it means to find yourself and your partner in real time and why this isn’t easy. And you will begin to spin a new tale about your sexual life that boasts so much more room for growth and transformation than the story you have been telling so far.

Gratitude

We welcome committed couples of all kinds.

We welcome queer and straight couples, couples of all sizes, ages and abilities, races and ethnicities. We welcome couples who practice monogamy and couples who live in non-traditional relationship structures. Our focus will be on the science and art that binds two people in a committed relationship seeking extraordinary sex but everything you learn is applicable to a wider system.

Participants will step out of time,

into sacred space engaging

eye to eye, belly to belly, pelvis to pelvis,

and heart to heart.

New possibilities emerge at

the gateway to erotic transformation.

Important Details

The retreat will be held at Mountain Lake Park in Warwick, NY from 9:30AM to 6PM on Saturday, March 22, 2025.

We will be using one of their group spaces and the park has scenic trails for walking if you wish to get outside during one of our breaks. Learn more at: www.mtlakepark.com.

Mountain Lake Park is located at 46 Bowen Road in Warwick, NY.

This will not be therapy but it will be therapeutic and very practical.

While we will not have the ability to dive deeply into the specifics of your relationship, you will walk away with new information about yourself and your partner and it is our intention that you have a clearer sense of where you are heading. We will take our time at the beginning of the workshop to discuss how our group will function with confidentiality and integrity. We want all couples to feel safe enough to try on new ways of being.


This workshop will be sensual, not sexual.

We will use breath, movement and non-sexual touch in a variety of different ways. You will be physically interacting with your partner only. We will all remain completely clothed at all times and there will be no sexual contact during the retreat. Anyone who violates these boundaries will be asked to leave the retreat.


The day is yours.

We will offer a series of experiences that build upon one another. While it is our wish that you allow us to guide you through the sequence we want you to choose what feels yummy and what doesn’t. At any moment you and your partner can take a break, go outside, chat quietly in another room, rest. This is all for your awakening and you get to decide what feels right.

Roses

Lunch will be on your own.

You will have 75 minutes. To make life simple and keep everyone onsite we urge you to bring a bagged lunch to or pre-order a meal from a local deli.

We’ll coordinate the details as the retreat approaches and arrange to have it delivered. We have access to a refrigerator and a microwave but not a full kitchen.


This workshop is not for couples in crisis.

We both work with couples on the brink of break-up, couples who fight in dangerous ways, and couples who are dealing with major crises.

Experience tells us that this kind of workshop setting is not appropriate for couples in these scenarios. If this is your predicament, we are happy to talk with you about better options to support you.


The workshop is $400 per couple.

You can pay by cash, credit card or Venmo. Payment is due by March 15th at 11:59 pm to hold your spot.


Want to sleep over?

If you wish to stay on-site or nearby the night prior and/or the night after please let us know and we will provide you with more information.


Are you interested?

For more information and signing up please reach out to Dr. Karen Berry.

Email: DrKarenBerry@gmail.com

Phone: (516) 313-3748

Want to read about the way we work?

For more information about our approach check out The First 30 Seconds: How PACT Can Help Couples with Sexual Encounters by Caroline Russell Smith and When a Couple Desires More Intimacy by Dr. Karen Berry.


Your Guides

Dr. Karen Berry

Dr. Karen Berry, PACT Certified Therapist

Karen weaves Tantra with relational science, yoga, and Five Rhythms practices into a powerful alchemy for embodied transformation and sacred relationship. For over 35 years Karen Berry, Ph.D. has been a clinical psychologist and differentiation-based sex therapist who has optimized clinical outcomes for clients and therapists alike. She was a member of the original Core Faculty at the PACT Institute (the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy), continues to mentor new and experienced PACT therapists, and she now leads PACT-based Ripening Retreats for couples seeking erotic upgrades.

Caroline Russell Smith, LCSW, PACT Level 2

Caroline Russell Smith, LCSW, PACT Level 2

Caroline Russell Smith is a clinical social worker and certified sex therapist who has dedicated her 25 year career to complex trauma recovery and erotic liberation. Her sex therapy work with couples is rooted in the Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy (PACT). Caroline and Dr. Karen Berry are offering professional training as well as retreats for clinicians and couples who want to ripen their relational and erotic capacity. Widening access to clinical knowledge is a guiding principle for Caroline. She has facilitated a free LGBTQ+ support group for the last 15 years and offers sexuality and gender workshops for colleagues, parents, teens and college students in her community. Her goal as a white, queer, cis, middle-aged, married human is to show up as a human/therapist/teacher with an abundance of open-hearted curiosity, humility and love. Learn more about her at: https://caroline-russell-smith.squarespace.com/