Building Connection, Managing Conflict
workshop
Great Marriages take work. Just like becoming dance partners takes learning skills, practice, and making it past crunched toes, it takes skills and practice to become masterful partners together.
The Marriage Dance: Building Connection, Managing Conflict is designed to help you build your marital intimacy, take notice of where your dance steps are hurtful, and show you how to quickly get back in sync.
From our 10 years of helping couples re-connect, we’ve curated the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that have been most helpful for us personally and for those couples we’ve worked with, in both building intimacy, as well as avoiding and managing conflict.
Couples will leave:
Having learned and practiced the one power skill to build intimacy and manage conflict.
Having learned the common types of destructive dances marriages experience.
Having identified and named their own personal destructive dance.
Having talked about the common triggers that start their destructive dance.
Having learned specific phrases to help quickly get their dance moves back in sync.
With a process to notice and change from destructive to intimacy-building dances.
Having practiced more meaningful questions.
Having discovered the Window of Tolerance and discussed how it affects them in conflict.
Knowing one or two other couples a little bit better.
Having had chunks of time to talk to one another and practice their new skills on meaningful topics.
What to Expect
We’ll share a number of skills and concepts designed to help you build intimacy and manage conflict. In other words, we want to help you love each other well. As couples, you’ll have frequent opportunities to discuss the content and practice the skills.
You’ll also occasionally be with one or two other couples to share what you are learning. We won’t ever ask you to share your content or what was said between you as a couple. Instead, you’ll share what you learned from practicing the skill or your thoughts on a concept that we cover in your small groups.
Facilitators
Tim and Katie Reid:
With more than 30 years of marriage, 25 of which have been in North Africa, we come as trainers who have worked to put the principles and concepts of this workshop into practice in the midst of our cross-cultural lives. Early in our overseas experience, we struggled as a couple . . . a lot. One summer, a counselor came whose expertise was recovery from adultery. He offered a marriage assessment and training to couples who wanted to learn how to avoid adultery. Of course, we wanted that! We were somewhat surprised to learn, however, that we had something like 80% or more of the factors that commonly lead to affairs. That was a wake-up call for us and started us on a journey of more intentionality in marriage.
So we’ve worked hard to uncover how to develop the dance of intimacy that we want to be characteristic of our marriage. It’s beautiful when we are flowing in our dance together. We still get out of sync, step on one another’s toes, and stumble into other, not-so-nice things that can happen when our dance gets disconnected! We look forward to sharing with you the key attitudes, knowledge, and skills that both we and our clients have found are key to building intimacy and getting our dance re-initiated on a loving and connected path.
Tim Reid: As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I enjoy working with couples and individuals. I also enjoy facilitating learning and growth in groups. I’m excited about this training for three reasons: 1) I believe marriage is a sacred connection worth working on and fighting for. 2) I know that what we’re presenting works—I’ve seen it work in our own marriage and in those of many others. (It’s also backed by research.) 3) I get to present it with my wife. In addition to this workshop, I offer attachment-based marriage counseling, in-person and online.
Katie Reid: Facilitating groups toward things they want to work on is one of the greatest joys I have in life. Together, Tim and I offer a customized training for couples called “Navigating Desires and Decisions.” Through that, I’ve seen the power that practicing has (over book learning) in making real transformation in couples’ lives. Marriage takes hard work, and I find it sacred to support both my own and others’ marriages. I have a Masters in Organizational Psychology and am an Endorsed Facilitator with the International Association of Facilitators.
Costs and Payment:
Early registration: $145 per couple
Complete the registration form by April 25 and make full payment by May 2.
Standard registration: $195 per couple
Complete the registration form by May 12 and make full payment by May 17.
Special Notes:
Space is limited, so please register early.
The price includes a $50 non-refundable deposit. This deposit will be in effect if you cancel your registration. There is no refund for cancellations within one week of the event.
You’ll be invoiced within a few days of registration.
Pre-work
We’ll be sending you emails with some things to think about and read in advance. The reading is not required, but may be especially helpful for non-native English speakers.
We’ll meet online using Zoom (registrants will receive instructions).