A marriage encounter weekend may be just what you need to put the spark back in your marriage. It provides couples an opportunity to spend quality time focused on each other and teaches valuable tools for improving your communication. This is a chance to pause awhile and focus on each other.
You bring home a wonderful way to continue the communication tools you learn in every day life for years to come.
A "Marriage Encounter" is a weekend away from home, family and responsibilities where in a comfortable, secluded environment a couple is guided in the discovery of new techniques of communicating and sharing with one another.
It is not a retreat, but it is a program designed to give couples the opportunity to examine their lives together, their weaknesses and strong points, their attitudes toward each other and toward their families.
Couples are given the opportunity to look at themselves, privately with their partner in an honest, face-to-face, heart-to-heart encounter.
Sessions are held Friday night through Sunday afternoon. At each session a lead couple and a United Methodist Clergy Couple make a presentation or informal talk. The purpose of each presentation is to inspire the couples making the Encounter to become aware of their own feelings about various aspects of their marriage.
The second step - expressing these feelings to each other - is achieved through a technique taught during the weekend, called dialogue. All dialogue sessions between couples are always conducted privately, and away from the group. The weekend is orderly, informative and structured to present a new technique of communication to couples in as interesting and understandable fashion as possible.