Marriege Encounter

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mommi2four

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My husband and I are celebrating our 5 wedding anniversary. I want to go to a Marriege Encounter Retreat. How can I convince him besides saying" This is what I want for Christmas, my b-day, valentines and our annivesary." LOL.

Is it a good expereince?
Can I get peoples’ testimony?
 
Marriage Encounter was a great experience, I can’t recommend it enough.

You can assure your husband there is no group sharing (men don’t seem to like that.) All discussions between husband and wife are in private. The weekend is put together by other couples who have a attended weekends in the past and a priest - so it’s not put on by psychologists or marriage “gurus”.

This is fantastic for communication. You can see the couple when the weekend is over, how much closer they’ve become just by their body language. He won’t regret it , I promise. (Tell him it will improve you sex life, that usually works for most men 😃 )
 
My wife and I went.

I liked it. She liked it. Our marriage was improved

It is true there is no “group sharing” required. The couples doing the presentations do some sharing but participants are not asked to. The sharing is between husband and wife only.

One thing I thought was interesting was that I learned the difference between a “thought” and a “feeling.”

Alan
 
Just to give another point of view - my husband and I went to a Marriage Encounter weekend about five years ago. The weekend went quite well, although somewhat stressful. Afterwards, I felt as if my soul was raw! I experienced “side effects” that I had not expected, and it led me to be quite negative about the whole thing.
 
We have been married 8 years.
And I really feel we need something be it ME or Couple for Christ or Retouvaille.
REcently there was a weekend advertised in our parish bulletin and mentioned to dh, but he is totally against it to the point that he told me I could go alone.
Well I can just pray and hope he has a change of heart.
 
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mommi2four:
How can I convince him besides saying" This is what I want for Christmas, my b-day, valentines and our annivesary."
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Give him a Gift Certificate to Marriage Encounter as a Christmas Present.😃
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Most definitely go on a Marriage Encounter. My husband and I went on one when we were married 6 months. We were students at the University of Massachusetts when they had a worldwide convention there. I was impressed by seeing married couples of all ages walking hand in hand. When I told my husband I wanted to do this he was concerned (He misunderstood the purpose of ME and thought that our marriage must be falling apart). He reluctantly agreed but said I had to come up with the money since living on a graduate student’s stipend ($4,000 a year - can’t believe we survived on that) there wasn’t extra money to spend on things like that. I got the money by asking people to please give me the amount of money they were going to spend on a Christmas or birthday present for me. It was one of the best things we ever did. We learned principles such as love is a decision that have stood us well in 26 years of marriage. There have been times both of us had had to decide to love the other even though we weren’t liking each other very much at the time. If that is not enough to convince you - since you sign yourself as mommi2four - it is a weekend away from the children, in a hotel and most importantly you don’t have to cook. 👍
 
Can someone give me a little more information?

I see Retouvaille promoted for couples with problems including those on the verge of divorce. Marriage Encounter says it makes good marriages better. What if you are not in a “good” marriage but not on the verge of divorce either? Is either appropriate with a reluctant spouse or should the couple just pursue individual counseling?
 
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kmktexas:
Can someone give me a little more information?

I see Retouvaille promoted for couples with problems including those on the verge of divorce. Marriage Encounter says it makes good marriages better. What if you are not in a “good” marriage but not on the verge of divorce either? Is either appropriate with a reluctant spouse or should the couple just pursue individual counseling?
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I would go with Marriage Encounter. Unless you have serious issues such as infidelity or other such devistating marriage problems then I would go with retrouvaille.

A reluctant spouse could deinately still benefit from Marriage Encounter, it certainly can’t hurt it. Retrouvaille requires both couples to individually speak to someone (over the phone) to confirm their willingness to commit to it.
 
Marriage Encounter rules!! It is a very emotional experience, so don’t expect a nice little getaway with your spouse - it’s work but so worth it!
 
My husband and I attended WWME last weekend, and I can’t recommend it enough. My husband was a little reluctant, but went willingly once he learned that there was no group sharing. By the time we left, he was very happy that we went. Actually, I think he got even more out of it than me!

Like you, we have been married 5 years, and have small children. We had a very good marriage before, but ME really added a dimension that we were missing. It really helped us with an emotional connection and understanding that was not absent, but certainly not perfect before.

If anything, just tell your husband it is a weekend alone without children to concentrate on each other (did I mention alone;)).
 
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