All Couples Drift Over Time

When a couple first falls in love, they typically are in the honeymoon phase.  They naturally want to meet each other’s needs.  Satisfaction and romance are at an all-time high.  However, all couples experience drift over time.  The stresses of every-day life can cause distance and conflict, which diminishes satisfaction and intimacy.  If a couple does not have a strategy to navigate this experience, they will inevitably experience disappointment, conflict, and distance in the relationship which might lead them or their spouse to seek marriage counseling or a couple’s workshop. 

These are pivotal moments because they cause the couple to really ask themselves, “what do we want for our relationship” and “how do we rely on God to help put our marriage back together”?   The Hopeful Tomorrow couples workshop provides a setting where you will learn research-based tools presented by relationship experts who will help you navigate the ups and downs of everyday life.  It is a lifeline for couples who are struggling or in crisis.  

Divorce Is Not The Answer

Most couples who are hurting and in crisis, don’t really want a divorce.  They don’t want their children to be impacted by the effects of divorce on the family.  But they desperately need to find a different approach for resolving conflict and for effectively managing their relationship with their spouse.  The Hopeful Tomorrows couple’s workshop will help you learn and customize specific tools and strategies for your marriage that you can effectively apply to your everyday life.

Marriage Therapy Versus A Couples Intensive Workshop

When most couples think of working on growth in their marriage, their first thought is to do traditional marriage therapy.   However, the problem with traditional marriage therapy alone, is that it is a slow process.  A couple goes to therapy for an hour session and may make a little progress, but then they go home and continue to fight and do damage.  When they return to therapy the following week, they spend their time trying to undo the damage caused by conflicts from the previous week.  It starts to feel like they are spinning their wheels and It becomes easy for the husband or wife to begin to feel like therapy is not working and to decide that divorce is the only option.

The Hopeful Tomorrows couple’s workshop is more effective than marriage therapy alone because it helps couples get better faster.  The workshop pours twenty hours of hands on, practical information into a single weekend.   There are frequent breakouts for couples to practice in private the tools they are learning.   At no time are couples expected to share in front of the group.  On Saturday evening, each couple meets with a marriage coach for a private one-hour session to make sure they are able to use the tools effectively.   The marriage workshop provides a setting where couples learn research-based strategies and tools which are consistent with God’s design for marriage 

What’s Covered At The Marriage Workshop

At the workshop, couples learn how to resolve conflict in a way that really works and how to emotionally connect and grow in oneness and intimacy with each other.   The workshop also helps couples understand each other’s needs and how to communicate effectively.  Couples leave the workshop equipped to apply the tools learned to their everyday lives and a different approach for managing their relationship and in growing in their intimacy together.

Hopeful Tomorrows Marriage Retreat

The Hopeful Tomorrows Marriage Retreat is led by relationship experts, Derek and Missy Irvin.  Derek is a Board-Certified Pastoral Counselor and Missy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  They are both trained practitioners of Emotionally Focused Therapy and bring a practical mix of research-based tools and Biblical insights.  The conference begins on Friday at 7:00 and ends on Sunday at 4:00.  The price of the conference is $1,345 per couple, payment options available upon request.  Discounted rates for the hotel have been negotiated if you choose to stay on site.