There are four skills that you need to build a strong, secure marriage. Studies show
that most marriages and relationships break up over the failure to manage one or
more of these skills. The Skills Building Course focuses on helping participants build:
- Communications Skills
The foundation of a good marriage or any good relationship is communication skills.
Without learning how to listen to your partner and communicate your own needs,
interests, and ideas effectively, none of the other skills or rules can work. Some people
are better communicators than others. Some are better listeners. This course will help
give you skills to know how to communicate your own feelings and thoughts and will
help you learn how to really listen to what your partner has to say.
- Anger Management Skills
Anger management is crucial because so many marriages and non-married
relationships fail when one partner cannot control his or her anger. Many women stay
in abusive relationships and are permanently scared. Children suffer. And even when
anger does not become physically violent or verbally abuse, being perpetually angry at
your partner interferes with a normal loving relationship and can show up by acting
out that anger through infidelity or denying physical intimacy or by engaging in other
destructive behavior such as drinking, taking drugs, gambling, or compulsive spending.
These relationships can be improved dramatically with effective anger management
skills.
- Fidelity Skills
Many marriages fail because one or both of the partners is unfaithful. We live in a
society that is saturated with sexual messages, almost none of which promote fidelity.
It is easy to be tempted to stray and increasingly easy to find opportunities to engage
in behavior that can lead to infidelity, even if the partner doesn’t think s/he is doing
anything wrong. Joining internet “chat” rooms that encourage intimate talk, constantly
comparing your partner to Hollywood images of the “ideal” man or woman, even making
poor decisions about what friends to spend time with can lead to temptations that are
difficult to resist. We are going to discuss how couples can protect themselves from
infidelity by practicing certain skills in their daily lives.
- Financial Competency Skills
Stress over money is another common cause of divorce. Few couples are lucky enough
to have so much money each partner can decide to spend whatever s/he wants, however
s/he wants to. Learning to live within a budget and making decisions that are fair
to both partners and to the family are crucial to a good marriage. Learning how to
save for the future, avoiding building up large debts, and agreeing on your financial
priorities will help other aspects of your marriage. We are going to help you learn some
basic skills to improve your ability to manage your own money and decide on your
spending priorities.
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