[Wednesday Wellness] Marriage intensives offer hope and restoration

By Dr. Stephen Bell, LMFT, Professor of Psychology at Ouachita Baptist University  

Have you ever been in a situation where you just felt like you ran out of time? You just knew that a few more minutes could have made a major difference in the disappointing outcome. Maybe, you found yourself cheering on your favorite team and as the team began to gain momentum at the end of the game and move closer to a victory, you looked up and the clock ran out just before the team could cross the finish line.   

For many people, this example represents their favorite team called marriage and their experience with hourly counseling. Hourly counseling is a great option for many people and will continue to be for years to come but unfortunately, hourly counseling can create many challenges for couples who find themselves in great need of hope and reassurance for a better tomorrow. So often, married couples report making good progress during a traditional counseling session only to see the clock run out before gaining enough competence and confidence in their ability to go back home and engage the ongoing issues as well as the new challenges of the pending week.  Marital struggles take time to understand and navigate which makes marriage intensives a great option for couples seeking marital hope and restoration. 

Why consider an intensive for your struggling marriage? Marriage intensives are multiple hour sessions conducted over consecutive days.  Marital problems do not develop overnight nor are they resolved quickly. Healing and restoration within a marriage is a process. Marital intensives are designed to expedite this process giving hope to a couple who reports being tired and at their wits end. Intensives allow couples to engage conflict and “cross the finish line” during tough conversations, gaining competence in their abilities to navigate life together before heading back home. Marriage intensives create the most relational momentum in the shortest amount of time.   

I am excited to be teaming up with Arkansas Baptist Children and Family Ministries and helping Living Well Counseling create and offer marriage intensives in order to strengthen families and communities across Arkansas. Over the past 15 years, I was privileged to have been given a front row seat to watch God work through distressed couples within an intensive framework.   

One of the greatest rewards of being a marriage and family therapist is observing a couple learn ways to not only survive but thrive in their marriage. I continue to be encouraged and blessed by so many couples living out God’s redemptive story through the healing and restoration of their marriage.  

Living Well Counseling will be offering these upcoming dates with many more opportunities to follow: October 25-26, November 25-26, December 16-17, January 6-7, and January 8-9.   

If you would like to learn more about our marriage intensives as well as family intensive opportunities, please reach out to our Living Well Counseling team at (501)737-4320.