The Strengthening Your Love^TMMarriage Workshop is a Christ-Centered Marriage Renewal Workshop for married or engaged couples looking to reconnect, repair, and re-energize their marriage.

This retreat is for married couples who…

• desire to deepen their connection
• need help to establish good communication patterns in their marriage
• feel distant from each other and aren’t sure why
• want to deepen the sacramental reality of their marriage
• are in a rut and want to find a way to start over
• seem stuck in repeating patterns of arguing or silent distancing that cause frustration and pain
• want to begin the process of repairing relationship hurts, even old ones, and understand how to move forward

The Strengthening Your Love^TMMarriage Workshop is a Christ-centered weekend workshop designed to nurture emotional closeness in your marriage. Facilitated by an expert team of Catholic therapists. This two-day workshop offers a road-map for addressing sensitive issues, encouraging healthy conversations framed in the Catholic faith, and provides personal guidance for married couples in the areas of forgiveness and growing in emotional intimacy.

Adapted for the Catholic couple, this workshop is based on the international best-selling books by Dr. Sue Johnson: Hold Me Tight: 7 Conversations for a Lifetime of Love and Created for Connection. These books are based in the ground-breaking Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT.) EFT employs strategies to help couples recognize and improve unhealthy patterns of communication in their marriage.

The EFT approach for couples can be broken down into seven transforming conversations that use the defining moments in love relationships to foster secure and lasting bonds These conversations aim to help couples:

• Discover what your partner is really trying to say through his or her actions.
• Look into the feelings underneath the immediate  reactions.
• Repair relationship rifts and build emotional safety with one another.
• Move into greater accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement with your partner.
• Discover how to find and offer forgiveness.
• Discover how emotional connection creates an environment for great sex.
• Become mindful about maintaining loving connection throughout a lifetime.

In addition to the private conversations couples will have with one another throughout the two days, there will be  opportunities for confession, Mass, and a renewal of Marriage Vows..

This two-day workshop does not include an overnight stay. Day 1 on Saturday ends just before dinner with couples returning the following Sunday morning to continue with Day 2 of the workshop. 

The registration fee includes the workshop fee for you and your spouse, all materials, expert-guided assistance during the workshop from therapists and facilitators, plus breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages throughout the weekend.

Our speaker team varies each session and is comprised of Catholic psychologists, therapists, and priests who will offer their expertise and experience. Therapist-consultants will be present for  the entire weekend in order to provide individual consultation for couples. Our licensed clinician presenters will also give live demonstrations of relationship building exercises. 

Past speakers include:

• Fr. Peter Hopkins, LC, MSP
  • Program Director and Chaplain, Our Lady of Bethesda Retreat Center
• Dr. Lisa Klewicki, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist
  • Founder, Fountain of Life, LLC
  • Creator,  Strengthening Your Love Marriage Workshops
• Dr. Jacob Halbert, PsyD
• Jennifer Brinker, LCSW-CDr.
• Dr. Kathy Musslewhite, PsyD
• Melissa Freymann, LCPC, NCC
• Roger Sandberg, LCPC
• Sarah Portner, LCSW-C
• and others...

DISCLAIMER: While this workshop is psychologically oriented it is intended to be educational and spiritual in nature and does not imply a therapeutic relationship of any kind with any of the psychologists or therapists consulting during the weekend experience. If you are interested in pursuing therapeutic services, we can provide you with a list of therapists to contact either prior to or following the workshop.