This month I am busy preparing for two new courses for couples that I will begin to offer starting in January. Start Right, Stay Connected is for couples wishing to deepen their committment. Couplehood As A Spiritual Path is for couples in a stable relationship who wish to enhance their connection in the context of faith. Both will be held at the beautiful and historic St. John's Episcopal Church in Georgetown. 

 

In keeping with my announcement of these two relationship courses, the two other items in November's edition of Compass also deal with relationships. If you're not in a marriage or intimate relationship right now these can still be relevant to you; we are always in some sort of committed relationship--to family, friends or business partners. Like marriage, the more intentional you are with those relationships the greater chance you will have to be more satisfied with yourself and those around you.

I am offering a one-day course for couples who wish to deepen their commitment. Marriage education courses like this have been shown to reduce the divorce rate by 30%. It's a bargin compared to the comparable hours of private sessions and the educational format is what some would call "male friendly." 

 

This Makes a great wedding gift for someone you love!

 Start Right

The smarter you are when you start marriage, the
better chance it has of being everything you both
hoped for. True and enduring love does exist. You
can make a wonderful marriage better, deeper,
richer and stronger as the decades pass. That's
what this seminar is all about.

 

 

 

 January 10
 April 4
 June 27
 September 12

Location:

The historic St. John's Episcopal Church
Georgetown
3240 O Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

 

Couplehood as a Spiritual Path is an 6-week course for couples that guides you through learning about the psychological and spiritual workings of intimate relationships. It is based on Imago Relationship Therapy and Christian spirituality of love and compassion. It offers couples a chance to improve connection and gain tools for dealing with conflict and hurts.   

 

This interactive course explores: 

The historic St. John's Episcopal Church
Georgetown
3240 O Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007

 
Click here for registration information 

I'm sending this around again since my free audio clip, How To End All Forms of Criticism, is now on YouTube. This makes it a lot easier to listen to, with just one click here: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=MWiLYVmx3Eo

The reason this topic is so important is that most of us use criticism when we don't know we are doing it. Or we know we are doing it and just think it's the best way to create change. The truth is that you can express frustrations and concerns without criticism and get better results. Using criticism makes you feel powerful, but it actually diminishes your power in a relationship in the long-run. Criticism usually pushes people into a defensive position where they aren't as open to your needs and are more prone to frustrate you.

 

For this reason, learning how to identify and end criticism is an obvious form of first-aid for any relationship suffering from disconnection. It's usually hard to permanently end criticism in a relationship unless you understand and address the source(s) of disconnection. But I usually find that when a couple is able to temporarily suspend criticism of their partner it becomes more possible to take the next steps toward a healthy, conscious partnership.

 

 Running time of the YouTube clip is only 10 minutes. Give a listen while your chocolate-chip cookies are in the oven and by the time they're done you'll have criticism on the run in your relationship--and it won't hurt to start with something sweet in your mouth!