The Goals of Retrouvaille

To Help Struggling Marriages

Our primary goal is to provide help for couples who live in the disappointment and pain of marriage problems. The Retrouvaille weekend provides a safe setting encouraging couples to learn communication in marriage in a respectful manner. The post-weekend phase of the Retrouvaille program is as critical to a couple experiencing marital problems as the initial weekend experience. We know that the degree of disappointment, deterioration and despair in hurting marriages cannot be healed in one weekend. Restoration takes time. The post-weekend sessions provide support as couples discuss concepts of the importance of communication in marriage, intimacy, handling conflict, and many other topics.

The final phase of the program, CORE (Continuing Our Retrouvaille Experience) allows for casual supportive small group meetings each month to continue to reinforce the communication tools learned on the weekend as couples continue to heal their marriages.

To Build Strong Marriages

Today's unchallenged acceptance of divorce suggests that many friends, families, and church communities are providing only limited support for marriages. Retrouvaille is a program that is solely dedicated to providing the necessary support to help save marriages, as we believe in the value of marriage and desire to promote its growth and reconciliation when possible. Although recognizing that all marriages cannot be saved, more struggling couples could certainly be helped by learning the effective tools of communication offered in the Retrouvaille Program.

Asking for Help Can Be Difficult

Asking for help and support when a marriage is in serious trouble can be a difficult task, as many couples don't know where to turn. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. The Retrouvaille Program is an advocate of marriage counseling, when needed, and many counselors and marriage therapists routinely send clients to the Retrouvaille program before beginning counseling or if they reach a point of impasse.

Retrouvaille is Different

Divorce is painful, difficult, and expensive and should be considered a last resort for the resolution of marital challenges. Putting the pieces of a marriage back together is not an easy journey, but certainly not any harder than divorce. Many couples claim to have “tried everything”, and usually find they have simply tried the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

People can and do change and marriages can change for the better. The many couples that have participated in the Retrouvaille Program over the years decided to make the investment in each other to continue their journey of marriage. It can be a difficult choice, but in making your decision, consider the investment you have already made in each other. Reconciliation and healing are possible if you are willing to put the past behind you and look beyond the hurt and the pain, in order to rediscover each other in a new and positive way. Retrouvaille can be the fresh start your marriage needs.