 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Problems in Your Relationship?
We Can Help
Marriage Quest is a 3-day retreat program for couples who are looking for an intensive and powerful approach to marriage counseling, whether they are in a crisis and at a crossroad in their relationship... or hoping for a deeper connection together.
Marriage Quest is a personalized private marriage counseling retreat, not a group program like workshops, seminars, or marriage encounters.
As a husband and wife team, counseling couples since 1983, we have specific training in marriage therapy and marriage repair. We have found that our intensive couple-to-couple retreat (the four of us working together) is a highly effective way to help couples understand and resolve their problems. We know personally and professionally about the challenges of modern day relationships. With this knowledge we bring to marriage therapy a blend of male and female perspectives and a comfort with the issues common to evolving relationships.
Rocky marriages can range anywhere from the need for some improvements, to being on the path to divorce. Whether it is to renew and awaken your fading love, repair a marriage that is ready to fall apart, or make a major relationship decision, our couple to couple marriage retreat can help you gain insights into your personal situation while teaching you healthy communication skills to keep your discussions focused and fair. The objective of our marriage retreat is to support the two of you in your specific personal relationship goals, whatever they may be, while concurrently enhancing your relationship.
Unlike other programs, we advocate for marriage but not at any price. Our work is professional and non-denominational. We believe that people have the right to be happy, and that children greatly benefit from authentically happy parents, and that the most important goal is to follow the truth... to treat each other honestly... and to do that with love and respect.
Intensive Couples Retreat:
Our three-day weekend or midweek marriage retreat has been designed for the couple wanting a private counseling experience that is deeper and more comprehensive than that which they may have experienced in regular weekly counseling sessions. The marriage retreat is offered regularly throughout the year at our Cabot, Vermont retreat center.
Unlike most marriage encounters, seminars, workshops, and retreats this is not a group experience. Meeting with you, one couple at a time allows us to deal exclusively with your personal relationship issues. The four of us usually meet together in our comfortable counseling room, but often we meet one-on-one for a short period of time to explore a specific issue. Many couples come here to get in touch with their deeper truth: whether it is to rekindle and rescue their relationship, explore the decision of a separation, or to work towards a friendly divorce and healthy co-parenting.
The retreat will include:
- Opportunities to discuss what you each see as the problems, as well as strengths, in your marriage
- An in-depth discussion of your personal backgrounds and experiences, including your history as a couple together.
- Understanding your feelings, building your emotional awareness, and enhancing your skills in problem solving through effective communication
- An opportunity to learn and experience how love and forgiveness can build through increased tolerance and through the recognition that personality and character differences can actually enhance your marriage and personal happiness
- Depending on the problems that brought you to Marriage Quest, we may together discuss and learn what you saw in each other in the first place, stages of marriage and where you are today, problems of non-communication or mis-communication, how to identify misconceptions and change your reactions, stereotypes and prejudices and how to change them, and changing self-defeating behaviors.
Couples have come to Marriage Quest from many faraway places... from Alaska, St. Thomas, Scotland, California, and many places in-between. They stay at a local B&B, motel, or hotel while meeting for three days of intensive marital therapy.
Couples have come to us for many phases of relationship (including pre-marital) counseling to build better communication skills and a structure for a healthy marriage. (Hey Mom and Dad, what a great idea for an engagement present!)
We have often heard from clients, many of whom themselves are therapists, that our 3 day program is worth more than six months to a year of 45 minute weekly therapy sessions. Come experience what many other couples have found to be a more satisfying, comfortable, private, cost effective, and time-efficient way to nourish or heal your marriage/relationship.
Click for a more detailed description of Intensive 3-Day Marriage Retreats.
Emotional Intimacy and Physical Intimacy
The symptoms of marital problems are often exhibited in problems of intimacy... including emotional intimacy, physical intimacy, and sexual intimacy. Each partner often sees the problem quite differently, and has a different solution in mind. When we see that intimacy is one of the marriage problems we both call upon our experiences as Marriage and Family Therapists and Sex Therapists to carefully work through the barriers to intimacy. Click for more information on our approach to counseling in the areas of Emotional Intimacy and Physical Intimacy.
Infidelity
The discovery of infidelity is an earth-shaking experience - often tearing a marriage apart and leading to a cold relationship or an instant initiation of divorce. We have helped many couples turn the excitement of an affair back into the marriage while rebuilding trust and commitment within the marriage. Intensive marriage therapy, when accompanied by motivation on the part of both partners, provides an opportunity to address the nature and motivation of an affair and move forward. Couples we work with have the courage to face the truth and explore the options of staying together, a possible trial separation, or discussing divorce. Paradoxically this often leads to increased relief and a positive outcome. Click for more information on Marriage Therapy to Survive Infidelity.
Emotional affairs
Emotional affairs can be anything from regular emails with an old lover or office friend... to secret meetings that are leading up to a sexual affair. For the spouse involved in this relationship it often seems innocent and exciting. For the uninvolved spouse it usually is devastating, shows a lack of trust and extreme betrayal of the marital bond, and hurts deeply. Our job is to help navigate healthy discussions of what has been missing in the marriage, how the marriage can be more intimate (emotionally and sexually), and agreement on what is reasonable behavior with friends of the opposite sex. Click for more information on Detecting and Surviving an Emotional Affair.
Mid-life Crisis
If you have detected a change in your partner's personality, actions, or habits perhaps the problem is what is known as a mid-life crisis. A mid-life crisis can have many effects on one's life, many behaviors that need attention. Since these behaviors affect the marriage relationship, at Marriage Quest we evaluate the problems, seek the underlying causes, and work with you to find solutions, in order to revive the marriage. Click for a more detailed description of The Mid-life Crisis.
Empty Nest Syndrome
When the last child leaves home some couples breathe a sigh of relief while others find themselves lost and disoriented. This time of change can be a time of crisis and lonliness, or soul searching and growth. Click here to learn more about the Empty Nest "opportunity".
Pre-Marital Counseling
No new phase of your life is as tremendous as the step into marriage. Take time to prepare and acquire the skills to make a success of it. Make sure you start off on the right foot. Second marriages have a higher divorce rate than first, so learn from the past, and make this the best marriage ever. Click here to learn more about Marriage Quest Pre-Marital Counseling.
Sexuality
Human sexuality is an extremely complex subject and is, for many couples, a very tender and sensitive issue. Even therapists may avoid the subject because of their personal discomfort. At Marriage Quest, it is with great care that the four of us, couple to couple, may enter the discussion of sex in your marriage, when it seems appropriate. Click here for more information on Sexuality.
Divorce Counseling
Are you trying to make this momentous decision? If you have decided to get a divorce, let us help you in acquiring the skills to move forward in a positive direction, improve your relationships, and be better co-parents. You can't make a wise decision without all of the information. Click here to learn more about Marriage Quest Divorce Counseling.
Call us toll-free at 1-800-707-4566 or 802-563-3063 to talk about available dates and pricing and to talk more about our Intensive Marriage Retreat. In case we are busy counseling another couple when you call, leave a message and we will return your call promptly. Come experience what many other couples have found to be a more satisfying, comfortable, private, cost effective, and time-efficient way to nourish, heal, or re-direct your marriage/relationship.
You can email us at: |