NorthWest Washington Marriage Encounter

What is Marriage Encounter?

Marriage Encounter is a weekend-getaway, a communication technique and a community.

Weekend Getaway: Couples first experience it on a "Marriage Encounter Weekend," a cross between a seminar, a workshop and a retreat.  "ME Weekends" are held at a variety of facilities, but most often at hotels with meeting rooms. Couples attend a series of brief presentations, and following each one, are given a short communication exercise to do.  The exercises are done privately, and while they are not too difficult, they lead to deeper & deeper communication as the weekend goes by. NWWME is an interfaith organization, and weekends are open to married couples of all faiths.  Many of the principles come from the Bible, but are also simply good sound principles for loving & communicating.  It is not a "religious" weekend, but most couples find they have a "spiritual" weekend.  It is a very private weekend, with some fun and some serious times. Marriage Encounter is not marriage counseling, and is not intended for marriages in serious trouble, although the techniques may help such marriages to communicate better.

Communication Technique: The technique is simple, involving answering a question or two, which each spouse answers, and then a time of private sharing for the couple.  There are no requirements on the weekend for "public" sharing, other than a simple introduction at the beginning.  The presenters are not professionals, but volunteers, couples who have "encountered" and want to help share the technique with others.  None of the volunteers are paid.  They are not counselors, psychologists, or anything like that, just regular folks for whom ME has had an impact and they want to share that blessing with others.

Community: Couples who have been through a weekend get together occasionally for a variety of reasons.  Presenting teams and other volunteers to set up weekends.  Friends made on a weekend to see each other again. Other small & large groups.  Marriage Encounter has a number of global organizations, all of them run by grass-roots folks who attended a weekend.  NWWME is part of National Marriage Encounter, which is a U.S. organization of hundreds of small communities like ours.  Just like the original weekend, people are interested in helping others to make good marriages better, and getting together gives us opportunities to share & care & just have fun together.

 

Marriage Encounter is for making good marriages better!