The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program is designed to specifically address stresses within a marriage when one of its members is in recovery for substance abuse, incarcerated or reentering the community after a period of incarceration, military service, or any other form of physical or emotional separation. The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program helps couples to develop a variety of skills married partners find useful in establishing or re-establishing family harmony. Topics include marriage enrichment, effective communication, refusal and conflict resolution skills, using positive parenting techniques, and encouraging other responsible and healthy attitudes and behaviors.
The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program is offered in 2 Flexible Formats:
Weekend Retreat/16 hour Program
8 Session/16 hour Program
In other words, a couple may receive 16 hours of marriage and family enhancement skills over the course of one weekend in a retreat setting or 16 hours in 8 sessions over the course of 8 weeks (1.5 to 2 hours session per week) depending upon the format that best meets their current needs and preferences.
Implementing the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program for Couples in Recovery
The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program teaches the following effective skills for couples when one of its members is in recovery for substance abuse:
Parents and other caring adults who are able to resist negative influences, communicate effectively, manage personal and family conflict, process and respectfully express their emotions to others, and reach out for help with hope and trust are in a great position to maintain long-term successful recovery. These adults can, and often report that they do, teach these same powerful life skills to their children and other youth in their lives. In this way, these recovery skills can be passed from one generation to another, and operate simultaneously as substance abuse recovery support for recovering adults and substance abuse prevention for youth.
Implementing the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program for Couples Reentering the Community from Incarceration
The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program openly embraces and gently addresses many of the most critical concerns and challenges faced by the reentry population, including reconnecting with family and children, responding effectively to a variety of pressures from work, family, friends and others, and managing the deep gulf of painful emotions like guilt, shame, fear and powerlessness that often comes with making a “whole-life” shift from prison to the community.
Couples are provided the opportunity to complete exercises and practice skills specifically designed to:
Implementing the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program with Couples Reentering the Community after Military Deployment or Any Other Form of Physical or Emotional Separation
The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program is designed to assist couples in gently, lovingly and respectfully reintegrating into their family systems after periods of military deployment or any other form of physical or emotional separation. Anytime a parent reenters the home after a temporary or prolonged absence (i.e., military service, illness, education, job assignment, etc) there may be challenges with communication, bonding, establishing or reestablishing healthy relationships, negotiating expectations and consequences, expressing and processing emotions, and more. The Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program includes modules specifically designed to help couples learn the skills of creating and sustaining loving, deeply respectful and long-term healthy relationships with spouses, significant others and other members of the family.
Advanced Options for Implementing the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program
The CLFC Marriage Enhancement Program can be supplemented with the adult Getting Real module or the adult Developing Positive Parental Influences module for a more comprehensive program for increased relationship, recovery and health.
Children can also receive the youth CLFC modules. See chart below:
If you are interested in implementing the Creating Lasting Family Connections® Marriage Enhancement Program, please call or email COPES at (502) 583-6820 or tstrader@sprynet.com.
