Intensive Training
August 14, 2008 by Michael Smalley · Leave a Comment
We now offer training for therapists, pastors, and leaders who desire to enrich couples lives through education and skill building.
Our training program consists of a one-day workshop and it prepares individuals to present The Satisfied Marriage program (a marriage intensive) or the Engaged: the eight fundamentals to lasting love program. Once you have completed the training, you are officially certified to present either of our programs.
Certification gives you the following benefits:
- You become an officially certified Smalley Marriage Coach.
- You get listed in our approved providers section that is promoted nation wide at live events and online through our family of websites that reach tens of thousands of unique people a month.
- You get trained to work with couples in a one-day intensive format that is very powerful compared to traditional weekly counseling.
- You can increase your ministry or practice through one-day or two-day intensives for couples.
- You get to work with couples utilizing our The Satisfied Marriage program or the Engaged program.
Topics covered in our training program include conflict resolution, personal responsibility, validation, communication, handling anger, sexual intimacy, and much more.
The cost of our full-day training program is $1,500 plus travel expenses for an individual. If you are going to have at least 5 or more individuals at your training workshop, the price drops to $300 per person.
Attention professional counselors and therapists
If you are a professional counselor with at least a Masters Degree or Doctorate then you qualify to go through our home-based study that includes the training manual and a supplemental DVD. The cost for this self-study course is $199. You can order this program online here.
cforms contact form by delicious:days
I hate him so much.com: an interesting site for helping couples
July 21, 2008 by Michael Smalley · 3 Comments
This is one way to tackle the divorce problem here in the America. Check out IHateHimSoMuch.com and discover what they are encouraging you to do to help your marriage: Read more
What to do when your spouse won’t go to counseling
July 21, 2008 by Michael Smalley · Leave a Comment
This is not an uncommon issue couples have when their marriage gets stressed out. My first bit of advice is to relax and take a deep breath. Read more
Cohabitation just doesn’t work
April 18, 2008 by Michael Smalley · Leave a Comment
In a recent interview, Michael McManus shares why cohabitation hurts a future marriage:
Taking the life of cohabitation for a test drive before committing to a marriage has become enormously popular. And yet, with the failure of so many cohabiting relationships, and the swollen divorce rates of couples who cohabit before marriage, such a widespread cultural practice deserves critical examination. Michael McManus, coauthor of Living Together: Myths, Risks & Answers, and President of Marriage Savers, a nonprofit organization, discuss the deleterious effects of cohabitation in an interview with National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez.
Kathryn Jean Lopez: What’s so bad about living together?
Michael McManus: Couples who live together are gambling and losing in 85 percent of the cases. Many believe the myth that they are in a “trial marriage.” Actually it is more like a “trial divorce,” in which more than eight out of ten couples will break up either before the wedding or afterwards in divorce. First, about 45 percent of those who begin cohabiting, do not marry. Those who undergo “premarital divorce” often discover it is as painful as the real thing. Another 5-10 percent continue living together and do not marry. These two trends are the major reason the marriage rate has plunged 50 percent since 1970. Couples who cohabit are likely to find that it is a paultry substitute for the real thing, marriage.
Read the full article here.
Unlimited partnership: Couples in business
March 19, 2008 by Michael Smalley · Leave a Comment
Check out a great article on husbands and wives working together in business:
(FSB Magazine) — Some men and women are meant to be just friends; others inexplicably click, fall in love, and become couples for life..
Among those, a rare few know where their other half is at all times, they’re as likely to have lunch together as dinner, and they shamelessly poke their noses into each other’s business, literally: They’re entrepreneurial couples - partners who share a home and also a company- and they make up one of the most dynamic and unexpected forces in small business today.
While couples have launched businesses together since before the first pioneers peddled farming implements from their wagons, today’s mom and pop shops are different. More often than before, they’re professional instead of retail, global rather than local, and “mom” is likelier to have birthed the business and own most of it.
Gwen Martin at the Center for Women’s Business Research, in Washington, D.C., counts 10.4 million woman-owned companies (defined as at least 50 percent owned by a woman) in 2006; 74 percent of those are majority-owned by women. Of the 26 percent that are equal partnerships, it’s unclear how many are owned by spouses, but related statistics suggest an uptick in couple-run firms.
According to the American Family Business Survey conducted by the MassMutual Financial Group and the Raymond Institute, husband-and-wife CEOs of family businesses increased from 8 percent in 1997 to 14 percent in 2002.
Glenn Muske, an Oklahoma State University professor who has spent the past six years studying the topic, estimates that 3 million of the 22 million U.S. small businesses in 2000 were couple-owned. He doesn’t expect updated figures until late spring, but he and other experts believe that further growth has occured in the past half-decade.
What has triggered this transformation? Turns out that mom and pop shops have changed in large part because Mom now often has as much education as Pop (if not more), and she’s determined to use it.
Women now hold 59 percent of all college degrees, and are moving rapidly into traditionally male-dominated fields, such as engineering and computer science, that prepare them to launch scalable companies, as opposed to the stereotypical home-based catering business.
Read more here
Seminars
September 29, 2006 by Michael Smalley · Leave a Comment
(please fill out the form at the bottom of this page for a speaker request)
We are excited about your interest in our live seminars. There are three main seminars to choose from, they are perfect for community wide events. Our goal at each seminar is to serve the needs of each church or organization through relevant teaching and proven materials.
If you are wanting a special event, please do not hesitate to fill out the speaker request form at the bottom of this page. We are both available for special events (women’s retreats, men’s retreats, corporate events, preaching, etc.).
If you have any questions at all, please call Wendy at (832) 381-4374.
The three main seminars to choose from are:
- Becoming the Family of Your Dreams (a marriage and parenting seminar)
- Reconstructing Love (a marriage seminar)
- Wrestling with Gorillas (a parenting seminar)
(for those churches hosting an Embrace conference - click here)
My wife, Amy, and I have spoken in India, Africa, South America, Canada, and of course the United States to literally hundreds and thousands of people. We are passionate about helping singles, couples, and families learn what it takes to thrive in their most precious relationships!If you would like me (or us) to speak at your event, please fill out the speaker request form below or feel free to call us at (832) 381-4374. But if you don’t know us, or don’t believe me, then check out these testimonies from seminar attendees:
- “Great team presentation–appreciate the humor, especially with tough issues.”
- “They are real & honest.”
- “Very clear, well presented, repectful and entertaining.”
- “Very good, fun, informative, and scriptural.”
- “Hit home in a lot of areas.”
- “Amazing, hilarious, we personally related to their stories.”
- “Superb! Better than anything I could have anticipated.”
- “Great presentation. I laughed so hard it hurt.”
Endorsements from top presenters and authors
“I love Michael Smalley - he’s so imperfect! Talk about a man who married up, wait ’til you see Amy. They’re great teachers about life… you’ll enjoy them and be helped by them.”
Dr. Kevin Leman
author of Sheet Music (Uncovering the Secrets of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage)
“I’ve seen Michael grow and mature over the years and I’m so proud of the husband, father and man he has become. I’ve seen them in action,and they are one of the most entertaining and inspirational couples I know. The Smalleys will knock your socks off and teach you what it takes to thrive in your marriage.”
Dr. Joe White
President Kanakuk Kamps
View the 60 second video thanks to GodTube.com:
View the 3 minute video thanks to GodTube.com:
