COUPLE COMMUNICATION I (current program and revision available end of June 2007) teaches a practical set of talking and listening skills. It includes:

The 7 Ingredients of a Collaborative Marriage (in revision only)

Choosing Communication Styles^TM by developing your recognition of the choices and impacts of communicating in various ways.

Caring About Yourself by using the Awareness Wheel^TM to understand yourself and talk about issues more clearly.

Caring About Your Partner by applying the Listening Cycle^TM to connect with and understand your partner better.

Resolving Conflicts: Mapping Issues by guiding you to resolve important and complicated issues collaboratively.

Content of the Program

	Effective communication flows out of self-awareness and skill in communicating awareness, particularly about issues. You will learn how to:  Distinguish types of issues. Use the Awareness WheelTM, a practical map for understanding issues and the foundation for communication skills. Reflect on and expand your awareness through the Self-Talk process. Apply six talking skills for expressing yourself more clearly when it is important. Understand how caring or uncaring attitudes and skilled or unskilled communication affect the way you and your partner relate.
	Relationships grow with attentive listening and accurate understanding of one another. You will learn how to:  Transcend simply listening for agreement to listening for understanding. Apply five practical listening skills for tuning in to your partner. Experience the power of the Listening  CycleTM for getting to the heart of your partner's concern.
	The way you and your partner handle conflicts determines your satisfaction with the outcomes and each other. You will learn how to: Recognize your typical patterns for handling disagreements. Set comfortable procedures for managing conflicts. Combine the talking and listening skills in an 8-step collaborative conflict-resolving process, called Mapping an Issue.
	Partners respond as much to how something is said as to what is said. You will learn to: Identify the characteristics of four distinct styles of talking and listening. Recognize the positive and negative impacts of each style. Increase meaningful conversations and decrease stressful exchanges. Choose between the high road and the low road when you and your partner face issues. Integrate the Styles of CommunicationTM with COUPLE COMMUNICATION I skills.

Learning Formats

You and your partner may choose one of two learning formats:

• In a group with an instructor and several other couples (in once weekly sessions of about 2 hours, generally for 4 weeks, or in weekend classes)
• By yourselves as a couple with an instructor (often six 50-minute sessions)

Learning Methods

In the COUPLE COMMUNICATION I Program, you will:

• Hear brief explanations of the concepts, skills, and processes.
• See demonstrations of the communication skills and processes (live or on video).
• Reflect on and then discuss your own experiences in exercises.
• Practice skills and processes with real issues of your own choice (appropriate for the setting) using skills mats, tools to speed learning and extend skill use after the class.
• Receive coaching and feedback on your use of skills.
• Apply your learning in real situations between class sessions.

The program activities are designed so you: 

• Choose together privately, as a couple, the issues you discuss and practice.

Program Materials

For COUPLE COMMUNICATION I (CCI), each couple uses a CCI Couple Packet for class sessions and to extend learning and skill use at home. The CCI Couple Packet currently contains:

• 2 Talking and Listening Together workbooks (one copy for each partner). Each workbook includes:
  • A pre-questionnaire (based on the program concepts and skills) to help you as partners assess your current skills and set learning goals
  • Introduction and 4 chapters with practical concepts, skills, and processes, plus examples, guidelines, worksheets, exercises, and action plans
  • A post-questionnaire to check what has been learned

• 2 Communication Skills Floor Mats.
  • One mat shows the Awareness Wheel^TM and the other, the Listening Cycle^TM
  • They are for practice during and between sessions, as well as for continued application of the skills following the program. The mats accelerate your learning by simultaneously engaging your visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modes of learning.

(Mats are each 30 x 30 inches on sturdy canvas.)

• 2 Sets of Pocket Cards. Each set contains four cards, which help to reinforce concepts and skills learned in COUPLE COMMUNICATION I.

CC I Couple Packet, $39.00 plus shipping
Spanish Version, $30.00 plus shipping

You can order the Couple Packet materials using our online order form, or contact us at:

You may also order a Couple Packet through your instructor.

Learn from a Certified COUPLE COMMUNICATION Instructor

Learn from an instructor who has completed a thorough certification process. Find an instructor near you....

Of all the premarital counseling and marriage education programs we've participated in, COUPLE COMMUNICATION is head and shoulders above the rest. Where most programs are long on theory, COUPLE COMMUNICATION is all about practical, simple, highly effective skills. Those skills allow us to untie "communication knots" easily, and keep our relationship free from tension build-up. Elizabeth Spring and Harry-Clay Moore Fairfax, Virginia

 
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