Q: What are the differences between the seminars and phone consultations?

A: The seminars will be offered to groups of couples in community halls. These seminars will be two hours in length with a question and answer period incorporated. Phone consultations are available to any individual or couple and the nature of a phone consultations will allow for the content to be individually tailored to each couple’s unique needs.

Q: My partner and I are not married however we have lived common-law for several years, we are committed, and we are parenting together, may we attend a seminar.

A: Yes! All committed couples are welcomed to attend the seminars or access the consultation services.

Q: My husband and I cannot coordinate a time that we can attend the Marriage Matters seminar together. Can I come to the seminar by myself?

A: Yes, although you are required to register as a couple and pay the fee per couple, you may come by yourself. Having said that, if a couple registers for a seminar and only one partner is able to attend, the other partner will be welcome to attend a future seminar (for no further charge).

Q: My wife and I think that we already have a pretty good marriage. However, friends have told us to expect our marriage to “take a back seat” when our first baby arrives. How could your services be of assistance?

A: Many couples feel overwhelmed to some extent when baby arrives. This impacts different marriages in different ways and many couples do experience some disconnect within their marital relationship when their family grows from two to three. The services offered by The Relationship Resource are designed to both honour and strengthen that which is already working well in relationships. In addition to building on existing strengths, the Marriage Matters seminar offers multiple strategies for building and reclaiming connection, managing conflict, and establishing a healthy vision for the future of your marriage through the child rearing years.

Q: Our children are a little older (6 years old and 8 years old). Our marriage has been struggling for the past several years. We need help, what do you suggest?

A: While the research shows that couples experience of distress is particularly challenging during the first 3 years after the first baby arrives, several couples continue to experience difficulties long after the oldest child is 3. The Marriage Matters seminar has been developed primarily for couples who are parenting young children (newborn – preschoolers). Having said that, the seminar content is applicable to couples at a variety of developmental stages. You are welcome to attend the Marriage Matters seminar regardless of the age of your children. You may register for an individual phone consultation and this is the forum that will allow me to tailor the consult to your specific needs.

Q: I am not happy in my marriage and I know that my husband and I need professional help. However, he is typically quite reluctant to this sort of idea, how should I go about broaching the subject?

A: Virtually all couples experience challenges in determining when to access services as partners are rarely ‘ready’ at precisely the same time. If you are the partner who is feeling more ‘ready’ for services, I recommend that you approach a conversation about accessing services with your spouse with a spirit of curiosity. For example, you might ask some questions such as:

• How do you think our marriage has fared since the arrival of our child(ren)?
• Are you totally fulfilled in our relationship?
• If we were feeling even 10% more connected to each other, what would be different or possible?
• What do you think our children perceive about the stability of our relationship?
• How could our children’s lives be enriched if our marital relationship was stronger?”

The purpose of questions such as these is to ease into a conversation that is about possibilities for enhanced connection rather than a conversation that is about blame and shame. I welcome any spouse who is feeling uncertain about attending a seminar or booking a consult to contact me for a brief phone conversation or e-mail interaction in which you may ‘interview’ me about my approach to education and counselling consultation.

Q: Do you offer any gender specific seminars? I would like to attend a seminar however, my wife won’t hear of it. What are my options?

A: Depending on the level of interest, a seminar just for wives and another seminar exclusively for husbands may be offered in the future. If this is something you are interested in, please contact me by phone or e-mail so that I am aware of the level of interest.