Relationship Fitness: Strength Training for Couples

A Burst of Life in Your Relationship

Imagine feeling a surge of new possibility with your mate. You have an adrenaline high of deep appreciation of one another and you have new tools to deal with differences. Your relationship has shifted toward resilience and joy. How wonderful would that be?

It sounds great but seems difficult to attain? That's because our culture deals with marriage backwards.

For a wedding, you might spend months planning every aspect. A host of planners and designers, florists, and chefs guide you to consider, practice, and tweak each decision. As a result, you end up creating an amazing wedding! But the wedding only lasts one day.

For a marriage, there's often little time, care, or expertise invested in creating an amazing relationship. The walking-on-air stage fools you into thinking it will be easy. The well-guarded secret, untill you’ve been there, is that marriage is really hard to do!

Like many others, even after years of trying your best in marriage, you might be feeling:

• Frustrated that you are not getting what you want 
• Afraid that your love is not going to last 
• Confused over how to make things better without messing up what is good now

I felt this way myself. I was married for 35 years, and while lots of it was great, some of it was painful. A common strategy of mine was to bury my fear and frustration and become depressed. Another was to lobby for change but to bail out when the going got difficult. A favorite strategy was to blame my spouse and take the high road of superiority.  (Do you have that one down to an art form?)

Needless to say, my strategies didn’t bring about the kinds of change that might have helped my marriage thrive. Over time, in spite of the underlying love, our marriage dissolved. But YOU can take a different path.

Coach training helped me see all the ways I contributed to the outcome of my marriage. I became obsessed with getting the additional training, tools, and information to help couples deal with their challenges and find their groove and flow together. I trained with the Coaches Training Institute and the Center for Right Relationship. I studied leadership and did extensive discovery in Concious Communication and Conscious Living and Loving.

And guess what? I found lots of tested tools for making marriage thrive. I have organized many of them into a program you can take to lift your marriage beyond the surviving 50% into the thriving few.

You can learn to experience more fun, love, and appreciation in your marriage. You can expand the creativity in your relationship by turning frustration, fear, and confusion into new abilities to connect and collaborate.

But how? You could launch your own 6-year study of the experts. You could go into marriage counseling and take a serious look at what’s wrong. Or you could join a small group of couples to experience:
Relationship Fitness: Strength Training for Couples

As with physical fitness, there is LOTS of room for improvement between doing OK and being in top shape. 

Relationship Fitness: Strength Training for Couples helps you grow your good relationship into a stronger, more resilient, and joyful one. It’s like having a personal trainer guide and support your growth as a couple. 

In this practical, experiential program you will:

• Build on your unique strengths as a couple
• Transform your challenges
• Deepen your friendship
• Practice tools that stress-proof your relationship
• Have fun while investing in what you really care about

"My partner and I have grown closer as a result of this class. We have new tools that foster intimacy and sharing."  -Participant, Cincinnati, Ohio

Four Sessions, Four Themes:
Partnership ~ Giving and Receiving ~ Open Heart ~ Shared Dreams

Every session is experiential and provides tools you'll want to use right away. Action between the sessions helps the insights sink in.

Content is based on the work of renowned marriage researchers and relationship experts such as John Gottman, Arnold Mindell, Marshall Rosenberg, Gay and Katie Hendricks, and The Center for Right Relationship. There is no magic pill; fitness requires daily exercise!

Who is Invited to Apply?
Couples who value their relationship, are aware of issues they face, and are not currently in a crisis state. Application involves completing a questionnaire to make sure the program is a good match for you and to begin to get to know you. You will hear from me within 3 days.

Partnership:

• Clarify where your partnership is now and where you’d like it to be
• Find out what it means – to you! - to truly live in partnership
• Discover two research-based keys to marriage success

Giving and Receiving:

• Deepen your ability to share delicious, genuine appreciation
• Learn three levels of listening and how to match your level to the moment
• Discover how your communication may be undermining your best intentions…and what to do about it

Open Heartedness:

• Build your emotional capital with one another
• Find out how to have more choice and less reactivity
• Experience a powerful way to decrease tension and increase authentic peace

Shared Dreams:

• Increase the meaning and purpose of your relationship
• Explore and grow the unique culture of your couple through everyday symbols, habits, and language

Why Participate?
This program will help you expand the dream and creative potential of your love.  It is an investment in your personal fulfillment and in the quality of your home life. Your happiness influences everything you do and everyone around you. If you have children, the greatest gift you can offer them is a strong relationship!

Don't let small resentments grow into big trouble. Make sure there's enough capital in your joint emotional bank account to cover life's surprises. Relationship Fitness: Strength Training for Couples will help you lift your love into greater vitality.  

*committed relationship

Two Options for Participation:
1.  Join my Tuesday evening group, March 22, 29 and April 5, 19, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in Kensington, CA, OR
2.  Create your own group of four to six couples and your own schedule

Cost:
I’m offering a terrific deal for my first sessions in California: $197 per couple.  This is 8 hours of program in a small group setting. That’s less than $25 per session per person. And that includes "field work" and email support between sessions. The time to focus with your mate is priceless.

Satisfaction Guaranteed:
If your couple is selected to participate and you meet your agreements along the way, I promise that you will experience exciting, expanded ways of relating. If you are not satisfied with your results after the final session, I will work with you individually or refund your money!

Yes, I want to apply for Relationship Fitness.