We live in a culture that emphasizes hard work and staying busy. Time is taken up by family and work, leaving little time to focus on your relationship with your spouse or life partner.

Licensed Clinical Social Workers Renee Morgan and Dawn Marple Gise of Self Expressions in Malvern offer an effective approach for couples to set aside dedicated time to strengthen their relationships. The two have been helping couples as certified Imago Relationship Therapists since 2000 and are now certified to offer the “Getting the Love You Want” weekend workshops.

In these workshops, couples spend 21 hours (without distractions) with each other, learning in a variety of ways how to be better partners. “Getting the Love You Want” helps couples to connect on a deeper level and solve lingering conflicts.

A gift that couples can give to their relationship, these workshops are educational, experiential, and transformative. They are based on theory and exercises described in Getting the Love You Want, a New York Times-bestselling book by Drs. Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. The workshops provide a safe environment for you to learn how to:

• Break destructive patterns of communicating
• Develop increased compassion and understanding for each other
• Renew passion and pleasure in your relationship    
• Remove criticism, blame, and shame from your relationship
• Practice new behaviors with each other
• Learn how to really listen
• Understand what your childhood experiences have to do with who you pick as your partner
• Resolve conflict, among many other things

The next workshop is scheduled for Nov. 8-10. Learn more at Self Expressions.