Marriage Marathon seminar
What is the Marriage Marathon?
Whether your marriage is struggling and you're not sure what to do, or you are running on all cylinders and happier than ever, this four-part seminar is for you! There is something in this for everyone! Combining the expertise and unique professional perspectives of licensed therapists and certified relationship life coaches, we are intent on giving you an experience that will change your marriage for the better.
Many couples benefit from marriage counseling, but then struggle to maintain practices and concepts learned for very long after terminating therapy. The average couple spends anywhere from 12 to 25 sessions with their counselor, or 3-6 months of meeting weekly. Much of what is learned in that period of time is quickly forgotten and absorbed by old, bad habits once they finish meeting with their counselor.
The Marriage Marathon capitalizes on several important concepts to help couples retain for good what they learn:
1) Repetition. We hold four progressive seminars, each one spaced three months apart from the last one, over the course of a year. Each seminar covers new information, but also reviews previous seminar principles to make sure retention is maximized. Couples can sign up for just one of the four seminars if they so desire, but it is recommended that couples sign on for the full marathon to help solidify what they are learning over the course of time.
2) Principles. After careful preparation, excellent training, and of course, clinical experience, we teach best-practice principles in marriage enrichment that we have both learned and witnessed work most effectively for couples. Principles are important because they can be applied to various similar situations. In these seminars couples learn principles they can go home and apply, rather than feeling they have to wait to talk with their therapist so there is a mediator to help them solve each individual problem.
3) Practice. We encourage couples to actively apply the principles they learn in the seminar. For this reason we space each one of our four-part series three months apart, so that couples have time to apply principles at home for that time period before coming back and reporting, as well as coming back with questions.
4) Follow-Up. There are two ways this will be done: First, couples can opt to connect with one of the life coaches or therapists who will be assisting at the conference, and can choose to engage in private counseling/coaching services (for as few or as many sessions as they may choose) after the seminar, specifically focusing on those principles learned. Second, as mentioned earlier, subsequent seminars will spend a portion of time reviewing past key principles from the previous seminar and questions will be encouraged.
So with all of that in mind, let's meet your instructors!!
Steven Eastmond, LCSW
Steve has been in private practice for over 23 years since graduating with a masters degree in social work in 2000 from Washington University in St. Louis, the #1 school in the country in social work. He has worked full-time in private practice since 2012, but has also worked as a hospice social worker and on the forensic unit at the Utah State Hospital as both a social worker and an administrator.
Counseling and teaching are two of Steve's passions. He looks forward to "work" every day and enjoys so much helping people learn how to tap into their own strengths and abilities, find answers within themselves to their own questions, and develop new and exciting skills to overcome challenges and relationship difficulties in ways they previously never thought possible. For Steve, seeing people heal, improve, change, and grow is one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things he could be doing and he loves every minute of it.
As a publc speaker, Steve has presented for the last 12 years at BYU Education Week and has also spoken at BYU Women's Conference, several professional and state organizations including school districts and mental health platforms, a myriad of singles conferences in Utah and California, and dozens of LDS wards and stakes in Utah and Idaho. He enjoys teaching in ways that are fun and entertaining, considering this a much better way to learn and retain information than simply hearing a lecture. As a result, Steve weaves story-telling and humor with relationship principles in ways that help people leave his seminars feeling that they have had a blast while also feeling that they have learned some life-changing concepts and skills.
For fun Steve enjoys running, tennis, pickleball, golf, kayaking, and fishing, and someday hopes to be good at these activities, as well. He loves his family and enjoys hanging out with his kids and granddaughter.
As a result of Steve's experience in counseling practice and public speaking, you and your partner are in for a treat as you laugh and learn together in this Marriage Marathon seminar how to move your relationship forward to places you have never been before. Steve cannot wait to see you there!
Sherry Cutler, Advanced Certified Life Coach
Sherry is an Advanced Certified Life Coach, and obtained her certification from The Life Coach School and Jody Moore Coaching. She is also a former public high school educator, a profession she loved! When she left the classroom to raise her family - not wanting to leave all the work to her friends on the "front lines" - she became a "Perpetual School and Community Volunteer," and continues to be so.
In her coaching practice she LOVES helping people find, and then use, HOPE to heal relationships with self and others; to foster self-compassion and confidence; to soothe shame and overwhelm; and to build emotional resilience, process grief, and reduce anxiety.
Sherry has a unique ability to gently and compassionately - along with a little well-timed humor - help people see their own potentially problematic contributions in their marriage, while at the same time helping them remove shame so that they can generate the self-compassion and self-confidence needed to move forward. She has had clients come in feeling "stuck" because their spouses do not want to work on the marriage, and after a few sessions "magically" begin to feel better...without any initial change on the spouse's part. As time goes on, these spouses see the benefitical changes in Sherry's clients lives, and they begin to mirror some of the positive behaviors they see. Sherry is a big proponent of "You work on you, and watch what happens." How do YOU want to show up?
Sherry enjoys teaching and learning, using humor and real-life analogies, especially from her experiences as a wife, mother, and wanna-be tennis super-star. It's amazing how much "material" her children and husband are willing to generate for her. They must love her very much.
She is looking forward to spending time with you and your partner throughout this truly unique experience where we can laugh, cry, and learn together. Your marriage will thank you for it!
Save the dates!
WHERE:
Liberty Hills Academy
95 North Main
Bountiful, UT 84010
WHEN:
2024 - more information to come as we solidify the program.
More information to come for how to register, topics discussed, the schedule, etc. We look forward to seeing you there!!!