March 31 - April 2, 2006
Why aren’t our love relationships easier? Why do we idealize love so much, yet find it so difficult? It remains the great mystery, despite all the books and articles dealing with love and romance. Additionally, many lesbians have internalized society’s homophobia and struggle with a feeling of invisibility that can affect their relationships with partners and families.
In this workshop you will learn what was never taught in school: how to cultivate the disciplines and delights of love and how to relate more skillfully, so your relationships become a fertile area in which to grow. This work is based on many years of experience, learning, practicing, and teaching the ideas and skills designed by Dr. Harville Hendrix, author of Getting the Love You Want. The teachings and communication tools of Dr. Pat Love, author of The Truth about Love, further enhance this work.
Understand your relationship in a different light, in the safety and support of a warm, accepting space. Communicate more effectively, learning to express love and appreciation for your partner. Learn to use your relationship for emotional healing and spiritual awareness. Uncovering the root of interpersonal issues is an essential part of the healing journey. The partner who is driving you crazy may be the perfect person with whom to have the deepest possible connection.
Understand how to read the signals of your brain and nervous system so you can stop yourself from engaging in no-win fighting. Learn to diffuse the power struggles that develop into fights that never get to the real issues. Carefully crafted exercises will show you how to combine knowledge, compassion, and empathy to move toward having the relationship of your dreams.
Couples will share primarily with each other, so the integrity of the couple is preserved. There is no pressure for group disclosure and confidentiality is protected. The trip is not easy, but there is a clear map you can follow to revitalize your relationship. Thousands of couples have learned to use these tools to create loving and supportive lives together. This is a unique opportunity to enrich a good relationship, to begin a new one, to jump-start a faltering one, to get a handle on long-standing conflicts, or to decide if a relationship can be saved. Some couples have taken these workshops a second time to reinforce their skills and re-create their intimacy, and the retreat tends to renew hope by generating playfulness, love, laughter, fun, surprises, excitement, and romance.
Sharon Kleinberg and Patricia Zorn have been life partners for close to 20 years and therapists over 30 years. They both maintain private practices in New York City and are certified Imago Therapists. Additionally, they bring the communication tools of Pat Love, the inner child work of Nancy Napier, as well as EMDR and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy to their individual and couples therapy. They have contributed chapters in the books Lesbians and Psychoanalysis and Healing the Relational Paradigm: the Imago Relationship Therapy Casebook. Together they provide the warmth, sensitivity, skill, and humor that help the work of relationships unfold.