If you would like to strengthen a partnership or skillfully address concerns within partnerships, you are invited to join a Partnership Strengthening Skills Group.
The 3-session group is designed for:
- Couples (married, partnered, new relationships)
- Family members
- Friends
- Housemates/roommates/cohabitants
- Business partners
- Employees
- Co-workers
- Team members
- Two individuals interested in practicing interpersonal effectiveness skills
The Partnership Strengthening Skills Group is offered in a series of 3 sequential sessions on Thursdays from 5:45 PM – 7:00 PM for up to 4 partnerships. The cost for the 3-session series is $150 per partnership. The series can be taken multiple times. If one partner cannot attend a session, the other partner is welcome to attend.
Skills that strengthen partnerships:
- Use of mutually agreed-upon communication protocols.
- Reflective listening.
- Validation of the other person’s thinking, without judgment, perhaps without agreement.
- Empathizing with the other person’s feelings, perhaps while wishing they didn’t have them.
- Accessing inner wisdom to negotiate mutually beneficial, acceptable agreements.
- Safely, bravely, skillfully approaching reality rather than avoiding it.
- For couples, answering these questions may be helpful.
Session 1
- Introduction to The Dialogue, a humane, supportive communication and conflict resolution protocol first developed by Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., further informed by cognitive behavior therapy and dialectical behavior therapy.
- Basic skills practice with all group members.
- Counselor-coached demonstration sessions with volunteer partnerships followed by practice sessions using The Dialogue with logistics concerns as topics.
- Check-out.
Session 2
- Check-in.
- Partnerships select from a list of topics or one chosen by the partnership.
- Counselor-coached demonstration sessions with volunteer partnerships followed by practice sessions using The Dialogue to address the chosen concern.
- Check-out.
Session 3
- Check-in.
- Brief, counselor-coached demonstration session with a volunteer partnership with partnership’s chosen topic followed by practice sessions using The Dialogue to address a topic chosen by each partnership.
- Consolidate gains.
- Check-out.
To enroll, please text or email Anne Giles your email address as the designated point of contact for the partnership. You will be asked to register and sign standard releases. Your credit or debit card will be billed after the first session.
The Partnership Strengthening Skills Group will be facilitated by Anne Giles, M.A., M.S., L.P.C. Anne had the honor of being trained to use The Dialogue by Hedy and Yumi Schleifer in Orlando, Florida in 2001.
Partnership strengthening skills coaching sessions for team members can be held at your corporation, business, or organization in the Blacksburg, Virginia area. The cost is $100 plus $25 per person for a 1.5 hour session, minimum of 4 people. Large groups can be accommodated.
Questions? Please contact Anne.
