Who should have a Relationship Check-Up?
We work with couples who want to improve their relationship. You may be dating, engaged, married, living together, or have some other arrangement. Wherever you are at, our goal is to help you come together as a team and find some solutions that will work well for both of you. We run many Relationship Check-Ups with couples who may have hit some sticking points in their relationship and are having trouble moving past those issues. Some couples are doing well but want to make sure that they are setting themselves up for success over the long haul. Regardless of the situation, we want to help you make progress and help equip you to work well together in a way that honours and respects both partners involved.
We're on the verge of divorce, will the Relationship Check-Up really help us?
Yes! There are many reasons why couples divorce and while we can't promise to solve all of your issues, we've found that often there are a few issues that can seriously trip up a relationship and over time lead to a separation. From the feedback, we've received, separated couples have found the Relationship Check-Up to be very beneficial in starting to open up lines of communication and creating an atmosphere where problems can honestly be looked at and discussed without a lot of the heightened emotion that often surrounds these conversations. We want to help you see real and practical growth and give you some very useful tools that have been proven to help relationships not just grow but flourish.
We're dating/engaged, will the Relationship Check-Up help us?
Yes! Some introductory questions will be asked to determine your life stage and situation and the relational assessment will then customise the rest of the questions based on how you answer. This means that it can be used by couples regardless of whether they are dating, engaged or cohabitating. We do, however, encourage you to have been together as a couple for at least 6 months before taking the Relationship Check-Up as this will help you receive more accurate results. The Relationship Check-Up works very well as premarital counselling and for dating couples who are thinking about whether or not to take the next step.
Where will the Relationship Check-Ups take place?
The intial relationship assessment is completed online and so you can do that anywhere where you have an internet connection. For the Check-Up with our trained facilitator, most couples prefer to work over skype and so it's a click of the mouse away. Having said that, our facilitators are also happy to meet in person depending on travel distances.
When can we schedule the individual sessions?
The individual sessions can be scheduled as soon as you have finished the online assessment. We will work with you to find a time that fits but generally offer times in normal business hours. For our Marriage Check-Up Plus package, we can provide these sessions during the evening or on weekends.
What if we have to cancel an appointment?
We understand that an appointment sometimes needs to be changed. If this is the case, we would ask you to let your facilitator know as soon as possible and we can reschedule for a more suitable time.
Is the Relationship Check-Up like counselling?
The answer to this is yes and no. We see ourselves as more of relationship first-aid. We don't provide long-term counselling but are happy to refer someone if that is needed or desired. In many cases, longer-term counselling can be extremely beneficial and really help a couple work through serious issues. Having said that, we've found that often counselling can focus on problems from an individual's perspective rather than from a couple's perspective. This individualistic approach can be very helpful in certain situations but also has some real drawbacks. Our focus is a bit less on learning to compromise to meet each other's needs and more targeted on, as a team, how can we together solve some of these issues that we face. We've found that this method gives a new outlook to a relationship and encourages more engagement from both men and women as needs and desires are met much more freely. So, from our perspective it might be a first step to see if longer term counselling is needed.
What is covered in the Marriage Check-Up?
The Check-Up covers:
- 9 strength and growth areas: communication, conflict resolution, partner style & habits, financial management, leisure activities, sexual relationship, family & friends, roles & responsibilities, and spiritual beliefs
- 4 relationship dynamics: assertiveness, self confidence, avoidance, and partner dominance
- A personal stress profile
- Couple and family of origin maps
- Personality assessment
Do you offer any discounts?
Power to Change is a non-profit organisation that is focused on helping relationships thrive. We want to help however we can but do operate on a tight budget and try to keep our costs as low as possible to help as many couples as possible. If finances are an issue, however, we have had some generous donors give to help sponsor couples who are struggling. If that's you, let us know and we can talk about a plan that works for you.
What's the deal with the online assessment?
At Power to Change, we have found that it often takes a lot of time and work to help identify some of the core issues in a relationship. Using our online assessment tool helps to quickly clarify a couple's needs so that little time is wasted "figuring out what seems to be problem." Many couples have used this online assessment to help them clarify their challenges and make specific positive changes in their relationships. A great deal of research has helped make it extremely effective in assessing and portraying the relationship strengths and challenges.
Do you still have questions?
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