I don't want my family broken apart - I believe that with expert help our relationship can be repaired.

Our children's natural heart-felt need to have an intact home can be maintained with the help of modern psychological science. The current practices of courts and attorneys stem from the belief that it is best for someone to do what makes themselves feel good regardless of how it affect the children, the spouse or the whole community. A new breed of therapists can help our children.

Time Magazine article titled The Marriage Savers, states,

"In some quarters, the suspicion has lingered that the therapist's job is to validate a patient's complaints and act as ministers in reverse, putting couples asunder. "The idea of therapist neutrality often came down to support for breaking up," says William Doherty, director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota. And therapists weren't appreciated for it. In a 1995 Consumer Reports poll, couples seeking therapy gave marriage counselors low grades for competence.

Lately, however, a new breed of therapist and "marriage educator" is shaking up the profession. These therapists reject the passive, old-style therapies that emphasize personal growth over shared commitment and take a more aggressive, hands-around-the-neck approach to saving marriages. "They feel therapists have been too quick in calling an end to relationships and having people move on,"         (January 19, 2004, Time Magazine)

Alexander House
Our Vision Is:  To promote the dignity of every man and every woman through the truth of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church so that the sanctity and permanence of marriage and the family may be realized and preserved.  Our Goal Is:  To preserve the marriage covenant, build strong families and lower the divorce rate by helping individuals to discover the beauty and grandeur of the vocation to love and the service of life through family, church and community.

A New Optimistic View of Marriage
Until very recently, we were all so discouraged by decades of family breakdown that we accepted our 50% divorce rate as inevitable. That's all changing. It turns out we’ve been operating with good intentions but terrible information. We are now entering a new era - a Marriage "Renaissance" - fueled by powerful new research and the realization that we can get smart about marriage - learn how to make marriage work.        Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education, LLC (CMFCE)

Save your Marriage with Divorce Busting® Coach
In our view, most divorces happen because people simply don't have the skills to find their way out of trying and frustrating relationship problems. DB® coaches teach people the skills they need to approach their spouses with fresh ideas and get their relationships back on track. Although love feels magical, it isn't magic. Research has taught us a great deal about creating healthy, satisfying relationships. Staying in love isn't a matter of luck. You've got to know how. DB® coaches know how. They've been helping people change their lives in positive ways for years. They have loving marriages of their own. They walk the talk and they can teach you how to do the same.          Divorce Busting and Divorce Remedy by Michele Weiner-Davis

 Take Back Your Marriage: Sticking Together in a World That Pulls Us Apart
To ensure that one's marriage lasts "as long as we both shall live" as opposed to the increasingly popular "as long as we both shall love," William J. Doherty (Take Back Your Kids) recommends that couples undertake daily "connection rituals" that facilitate "intentional marriage." In Take Back Your Marriage: Sticking Together in a World That Pulls Us Apart, Doherty, the director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota, advises couples to avoid family and friends who undermine their marriage and to avoid sacrificing their relationship to their kids.  From Publishers Weekly, Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.      William J. Doherty, director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota

Retrouvaille Weekends
    What can be done to save the most troubled marriages? One answer was created by Marriage Encounter leaders in Quebec who noticed that a few couples divorced after the weekend. When they asked why, the couples said their problems (such as alcoholism, adultery, abuse) were more serious than those talked about during the weekend meeting. Therefore, a new movement emerged called "Retrouvaille," a French word for "rediscovery" that's pronounced ret-ro-vie.   Retrouvaille is similar to Marriage Encounter, but with one important difference. The leaders are couples whose own marriages once nearly failed. They share how they overcame adultery, alcoholism, etc., and they inspire couples in hurting marriages to try new ways to love each other.
    Retrouvaille clearly works. One-third of attending couples in Michigan over the last decade had already filed divorce papers, yet 80 percent of nearly 600 couples rebuilt their marriages. Retrouvaille is also a way to foster reconciliation among separated couples. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 40 percent of 817 couples were living apart when they went. However, 70 percent of the whole group saved their marriages! Retrouvaille is such a marriage saver that it has saved 80 percent of nearly 50,000 couples who have attended in Canada and the U.S. ( Focus on the Family magazine. Copyright © 1996 Michael McManus.)

Marriage Savers® Choosing Wisely before you Divorce Video Series
 ... which saves 70%-80% of marriages. It is a five part series, best watched with a friend or mentoring couple who can help the couple consider the issues. A Christian attorney in the first says, "The worst thing you can do is to call an attorney. He will ask you to separate, stop talking to your spouse." He outlines the horror that divorcing couples go through legally. Other videos talk of the emotional and physical cost, and the impact on kids. Reconciliation is explored. There are two workbooks. The videos can be ordered for $60 + $5 postage by calling our offices

The Marriage and Family Recovery Programs
Try a radically different program of Transformative Mediation to resolve your differences. Postpone any pending divorce or other legal action for six months to give mediation a chance.  The human spirit is capable of incomprehensible and mysterious transformation. It is never to late to begin again. We want to encourage our varied and diverse clients not to fear conflict; rather, conflict can become the catalyst for amazing growth and life changes. In the unity of body and soul, and through the miracle of faith and reason, you can begin to find the happiness, serenity and stability that you seek. God bless you. Mary Meade

PREP (Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program)
is one of the most comprehensive and well respected divorce-prevention/marriage enhancing programs in the world. PREP is a skills and principles-building curriculum designed to help partners say what they need to say, get to the heart of problems, and increase their connection with each other.
    While passion can last a lifetime, at some point, love usually faces a “reality check.” If you haven’t already, you and your partner will likely each move from vaguely seeing, but not caring, much about your partner’s flaws, to seeing clearly and caring very much.  Some martial experts suggest that couples need to understand that once the euphoric state is over, it’s over. The deep passion-the burning flame-has gone out, so get over it and learn to live without those feelings, or go find a new partner and start all over again. We don’t think that’s the truth of love at all.

The Art and Science of Love
During this weekend workshop, gain new insights and learn research-based relationship skills that can dramatically improve the intimacy and friendship in your relationship and help you resolve conflict in a healthy, productive way. Research shows that on average, couples wait six years from the first signs of problems before they seek help. This workshop is designed to strengthen your marriage or relationship. If you have a strong relationship, this workshop will provide you with insights and tools to make it a great one. If your relationship is distressed, this two-day workshop will provide a road map for repair.   Now available on video, the Gottman's popular couples workshop, The Art and Science of Love.  Whether you are in a strong relationship and want to make it even better, or are having marriage or relationship problems, and even possibly considering marriage counseling, you can now gain immediate help from leading relationship experts, Drs. John and Julie Gottman.      John Gottman Ph.D., clinical psychologist,  Gottman Institute in Seattle

 The Marriage & Family Health Center
David Schnarch, author of the book Passionate Marriage and creator of the Crucible Approach to marital therapy, which upends nearly all the conventional tenets of couples counseling. He says he is the therapist of last resort for many couples who go to his Marriage and Family Health Center in Evergreen, Colo., for an intensive four-day session: "The worse shape your marriage is in, the more this is the approach of choice." Nor does he recommend that a warring couple break up--that's just "one way therapists can bury their errors."  (Time Magazine 1/19/04)  January 19,  2004      David Schnarch, licensed clinical psychologist

Marriage Builders®
In this Marriage Builders® site, you will be introduced to some of the best ways to overcome marital conflicts and some of the quickest ways to restore love.   Dr. Willard F. Harley, Jr. has saved thousands of marriages from the pain of unresolved conflict and the disaster of divorce. His successful approach to building marriages can help you build yours. Willard F. Harley, Jr., Ph.D