Retrouvaille questions

[yessisan]

Can anyone tell me what it’s like to go to a Retrouvaille? I mentioned this to DH so we can work our problems out but because he’s a JW he’s a bit hesitant.

He wants to know what goes on, if there are times of prayer, what does the priest do? How many people attend, what does one do? Anything will help. I really need this to save my marriage but he isn’t too willing to do it unless he knows his JW conscience won’t be messed with.

Please help!

 

[kage_ar]

We have never been, but, I wanted to bump this back up! Praying for you.

 

[Teakafrog]

Yessisan, I sent you a PM, but I’ll give an overview here for others too.

Retrouvaille is not counseling, it is not group therapy.
It is led by couples just like you, who have been through the pain of a bad marriage, and have healed their marriage through Retrouvaille.

It is open to anyone, you do not have to be Catholic, or even a Christian. There is a priest there, but he talks about his own experiences, and is available for the Catholics to go to confession if they need to. There is a mass offered on Sunday morning, but it is not required, it is totally optional. **No one will try to convert anybody at Retrouvaille. ** It is about healing marriages, not making converts.

What it is, is teaching new methods of communication. Sounds useless, right? It’s not. Many of the big problems in marriage stem from a lack of communication. One partner feels like they are never heard or understood, one feels that they can’t articulate what they feel so that their partner can understand them, soon all communication breaks down and the marriage is falling apart. The techniques taught at Retrouvaille can counteract that.

There are a number of couples there, usually between 15-30, and 3 presenting couples and a priest. You do not have to talk about your problems to anyone but your spouse. It is for the two of you, no one else. It consists of one weekend full of presentations, then 6 weeks of follow-up sessions which are only a couple hours long. Monthly meetings are available after that.

Marriage counseling has only about a 20-30% success rate, Retrouvaille’s success rate of saved marriages is 80%. It is the best shot most couples have. No one is turned away for inability to pay either, they will work with you on that.

How do I know it works? It literally saved our family. We had been divorced when we went to our weekend, a year later, we remarried, this time IN the Church. God used Retrouvaille to heal our family, and I know it has worked for thousands of other couples too. For anyone in a hurting marriage, you have absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain by checking it out.

 

[yessisan]

Teakafrog,

Thanks to you DH is willing to do Retrouvaille!!! I had told him many times it wasn’t about converting him and that it didn’t have anything to do with Catholicism. I even found a site from Texas that explains Retrouvaille in Spanish but as soon as he saw “priest” red flags jumped at him. Then I showed him the PM you sent me, and he said, “O.K. I’ll do it, just don’t tell mys sisters” Since his 2 sisters are JWs he’s afraid they’ll get mad at him, but I’m so glad I found you! After he read your message he felt relieved and said he’ll do it.

You are my angel on Earth!!

I also spoke to my Pastor and he did recommend Retrouvaille, but the only bad thing is that the next one in Spanish around S.F. is in October. In the mean time we’ll go to counseling. Can’t wait for Retrouvaille. I need to learn to communicate better with him…

God bless you and your family!!

 

[Teakafrog]

Glad to help!

And again, I promise you, the priest is there in only a kind advisory role. The whole program is based on helping a marriage survive, not on converting anyone. We know several couples who volunteer with Retrouvaille with us where one or even both of them are not Catholic, and they all recommend it highly to their non-Catholic friends.

And good for you for getting some counseling in the meantime! Hopefully that will help with the immediate issues, and you can start dealing with some of the deeper stuff during your dialogs at Retrouvaille.

God bless you both, I’m still praying for you! PM me again if you need to.