| | | | Quarterly Newsletter, June 2022 www.friendscoupleenrichment.org | Dear Friend, New energy is bursting forth in Friends Couple Enrichment. As you can read below, we have welcomed a new Leader Couple. We are offering an information session for others of you who might be curious about leadership. We have committed to offering regular free online 90-minute “Tasters” to offer opportunities for anyone, partnered or not, to discover why we are so excited about the spiritual practice of Couple Dialogue.
We also continue to offer workshops in a variety of formats: A “pay as led” 5-day online workshop during the Friends General Conference Summer Gathering, titled “Connecting Practices” (90 minutes each day from July 4-8) A 6-session, online workshop over two weekends in October titled “Listening with Love”: suggested donation of $40/couple We continue to offer free monthly “Drop-in Dialogue” opportunities for couples who want to set aside time to practice witnessing and dialoguing, and We are in conversation with Pendle Hill to offer an in-person, residential workshop the weekend of April 14-16, 2023.
Read more about many of these activities below, as well as some fun articles about activities you and your beloved can do to reconnect and increase your intimacy. In love and light, The FCE Communications Committee | | | | | | | Meet Rick and Carol, Newest Leader CoupleFriends Couple Enrichment is delighted to welcome Rick and Carol Holmgren, from Meadville, Pennsylvania, as our newest Leader Couple. Carol and Rick are the first couple to complete the new, self-paced online training. They hope to develop a vibrant FCE community in their region and would welcome support from FCE community members, particularly those in their region of Western Pennsylvania, Northeastern Ohio, and Western New York. Rick and Carol will be co-facilitating an online workshop over two weekends in October. | |
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| | Listening With Love: Online Retreat October 22, 23, 29, 2022 | Find more joy in your life together! Couples enrichment has become a foundational element of our relationships and helped us to grow together as we experience life’s rewards and challenges. We look forward to sharing the gifts of couple enrichment with you in an October, Zoom-based Couple Enrichment Retreat: “Listening with love to strengthen and deepen our relationships.” The suggested donation is $40 per couple. |
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| | | | Movie Night! by Mary Linda McKinneyRecently, my partner, Mark, and I binge watched a television show. When we’ve done that in the past, we’ve often ended up feeling emotionally exhausted, physically drained, and like we wasted hours and hours of our lives. But this time, we ended our binge feeling really good because each episode was a catalyst for us to work on our marriage! |
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| Research shows that couples may improve their relationships by talking about movies they watch together as much as by engaging in couples therapy or learning conflict management techniques. Seeing characters engage allows couples to reflect on their own behaviors to reinforce the positive and possibly change less healthy ways of interacting. [Continue reading to learn more about Mary Linda and Mark’s experience of engaging in a research study about couples and movies – and a list of their favorite movies to discuss!] | | | | Free Online Tasters & Training Info SessionsHave you ever tried to explain what a Couple Enrichment workshop is to somebody else and not quite had the words to describe it? Consider inviting your friends to one of our new Online Tasters. These free, 90-minute Zoom sessions are an experiential introduction to Friends Couple Enrichment and to the practice of Couple Dialogue. Our next one is Sunday, September 18, 2022 at 5 pm Pacific Time/ 8 pm Eastern Time. At least one of the couples co-facilitating the October online workshop “Listening With Love” will be helping to lead this session. |
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| Everyone is welcome, whether part of a couple or not. We are especially happy to welcome folks from Quaker Meetings or other faith communities who are seeking ways of being supportive to couples and families under their care. We believe Couple retreats are a way to proactively provide “continuing education” for couples, whether they have been together for months, years, or decades. We also have an upcoming Leader Training Info Session on Sunday, August 21, 2022 at 5 pm Pacific Time / 8 pm Eastern Time. Any couple who has attended at least one Couple Enrichment event and is interested in learning what is involved in becoming a leader is welcome to attend. We encourage participation as a couple, but if only one person is free on that date, they are welcome to come. | | | | | Couples’ Activity: The Roles We PlayIn any relationship there are many roles – meal-maker, lawnmower, vacation planner, gift buyer, volunteer organizer, spiritual guider, holiday planner, etc. “Exploring Our Roles” is an exercise that helps couples reflect on the roles in our relationship, how fixed or flexible they are, and which ones we may feel ambivalent about. |
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