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Is It Time for a Marital Checkup?

By Ben Stevens

pstrongemThe following Guest Post is from a href="http://www.rootsandwingsworkshops.com/aboutus.html"Julie Thompson/a:/em/strong/p pEarlier this month a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/"Good Morning America/a presented a report called ldquo;a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6379069amp;page=1"Do You Need a Marital Checkup?/ardquo; nbsp;It cited the research of a href="http://www.clarku.edu/academiccatalog/facultybio.cfm?id=446"James Cordova, Ph.D./a, associate professor of psychology at a href="http://www.clarku.edu/"Clark University/a in Worcester, Massachusetts. Cordova said that an annual marriage checkup is the marital health equivalent of the annual physical or the every six-month dental visit. nbsp;Like a tiny dental cavity you canrsquo;t see, ldquo;so much is what is predictive of a deteriorating relationship is difficult for the couple to detect.rdquo; Thatrsquo;s where the checkup comes in./p divIn a two-year study, Dr. Cordova followed 68 couples for six months. nbsp;Each had been married an average of 15 years, and were in their mid-40rsquo;s. nbsp;One half of the couples participated in a two-session ldquo;marital checkuprdquo; with a battery of questions and a face-to-face relationship assessment. Cordova found that the couples who did the checkup reported greater marital satisfaction and ldquo;had improved in all kinds of waysrdquo; compared to those without the checkup./div divnbsp;/div divWhile a marriage and family therapist can provide such a checkup, there are other lower-cost alternatives to consider as well./div ul liA couples communication workshop introduces communication tools that help couples to improve their emotional connection. They learn to listen with empathy, reduce misunderstanding, and resolve conflict in healthy ways.nbsp;/li liA relationship assessment from a href="http://www.prepare-enrich.com/indexm.cfm"PREPARE-ENRICH/anbsp;can help couples to identify strengths and areas needing growth.nbsp;/li liA coaching session helps couples set goals for improvement in their relationship, and provides support and accountability for making healthy changes./li /ul divemIn the Greenville-Spartanburg area, the a href="http://www.rootsandwingsworkshops.com/aboutus.html"Rev. Julie Thompson/a, ordained minister, relationship educator and coach offers all of these services for couples through her practice Roots and Wings Workshops and Coaching, Inc. nbsp; A couples communication workshop begins January 8 at the Spartanburg County Headquarters library. nbsp;Visit /ema href="http://www.rootsandwingsworkshops.com/"emwww.rootsandwingsworkshops.com/em/aem for registration details or click stronga href="http://www.scfamilylaw.com/uploads/file/Jan 09 couples workshop.pdf"HERE/a/strongnbsp;to download a brochure./em/div pnbsp;/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SCFamilyLawBlog/~4/487277232" height="1" width="1"/

Full post as published by SC Family Law Blog on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).