Fifteen couples strengthen relationship skills at latest Adventures in Marriage workshop

By Ed Hopfner

“Rejuvenating, uplifting.”  “God knew we needed this workshop…”  “Very good and very effective.” “So many tools to use…”

                These were some of the responses from the 15 couples that attended a recent Adventures in Marriage workshop hosted at St. Mark in Belmont.  The workshops are part of a series of relationship skills offered to couples in the Archdiocese through a three-year grant from the Catholic Marriage Initiative.  The focus of the workshops is to help couples improve their marriage relationship through learning and practicing measurable skills.

                The first activity set the tone, showing how even strong couples can unintentionally become ‘distant’ through the everyday demands of life, especially in the Bay Area. “Did we mention problems, difficulties, troubles in your marriage at all?” asked the facilitators at the end of the activity?  “No, but look how easy it is to drift apart….let’s work to close that gap!” 

The workshops are intentionally kept small – 20 couples is the typical maximum – so that facilitating ‘coaches’ can help attendees be sure they have mastered the skills they are learning. “[The coaches were] a great resource for questions and what to do when you’re stuck,” according to several of the recent participants.

                Adventures in Marriage is a nationally recognized, evidence-based curriculum, developed a few years ago by Live the Life ministries in Florida, where a successful pilot program dramatically dropped the divorce rate in a major city by 37% in only five years.  The program is just beginning to be known nationally; there are now several trained leaders in Southern California, and some previous attendees have gone through training to become coaches for future Archdiocesan workshops.

                The daylong workshops will continue to be offered through 2027 in the Archdiocese as part of the grant.  The intention is that some of the couples who benefit will be interested to train as facilitators to continue to offer this wonderful resource to couples.  Pre/post surveys showed significant increase in “happiness in our relationship” and “connection to my spouse,” with 100% agreeing they would “strongly recommend” the program. 

For more information about the workshops or future workshop dates, please contact Ed Hopfner at [email protected].