10 Great Dates Premarital DVD Program

PREPARE/ENRICH collaborates with 10 Great Dates to create new premarital DVD curriculum.

We are pleased to announce an exciting new collaboration between David and Claudia Arp, founders of the 10 Great Dates program, and PREPARE/ENRICH. Together, we’ve created a premarital program that is low–cost, effective and easy-to-lead. Combining fun dates and premarital education skills, this DVD-based curriculum makes it easy to run an effective group.

How does the program work?

The program works for both seriously dating and engaged couples. Each couple receives a single copy of the book, 10 Great Dates Before You Say I Do. They read one chapter per week and meet for a 20-30 minute date launch where the DVD-based date introduction is shown before couples go out on their own. There is a Dating Guide in the back of each book with exercises for each individual to tear out and complete as part of their Great Date experience.

For leaders

The DVD program comes with a 10-session DVD and a copy of the book. The DVD also contains a printable PDF copy of the Leader’s Guide. Leading your group is as easy as plugging in a DVD for 15 minutes to launch couples on each of their Great Dates. Each book chapter corresponds to a DVD session.

Take your program to the next level with the Couple Checkup

We highly recommend couples considering marriage take a premarital inventory such as the Couple Checkup (www.couplecheckup.ca) or PREPARE/ENRICH (www.enrichcanada.ca). Both of these inventories are designed to help couples identify their strength and growth areas, fostering more productive discussions as couples envision their future together. The 10 Great Dates topics, book chapters and DVD sessions correspond with categories from these assessments, providing a great way to personalize the program for each couple.

With each book purchased, we’re including a voucher code good for a free Individual Profile at www.couplecheckup.ca. Couples can upgrade to the full Couple Checkup for half price ($14.99). Group leaders can also create a free group summary to better understand the strengths and growth areas of their group.

The 10 Great Dates Before You Say I Do DVD curriculum contains:

• A DVD with 10 video sessions hosted by Heather and Peter Larson
• 23-page Leader’s Guide on the DVD Couple’s Participant Book, 10 Great Dates Before You Say “I Do”
• A voucher code good for one free Individual Profile from www.couplecheckup.ca (allows couples to upgrade to the full inventory for half price).

Date topics include:

• Sharing hopes, dreams, and expectations
• Appreciating your differences
• Communicating and connecting
• Solving problems as a couple
• Managing Your money
• Leaving and cleaving
• Celebrating intimacy, love, and romance
• Realizing roles & planning for family
• Developing spiritual intimacy
• Choosing an intentional marriage

About the Presenters

Peter Larson, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and the President of Life Innovations, the headquarters for PREPARE/ENRICH. He is the co-author of the PREPARE/ENRICH Customized Version and the Couple Checkup inventory and book. Heather Larson, M.S., has her master’s in psychology and is a former teacher. Together, she and Peter host the DVD date launch segments. They combine the latest research with their own personal reflections to highlight content from the book and its exercises.

About the Creators

Claudia & David Arp, MSW, are founders of Marriage Alive International, Inc., a groundbreaking ministry dedicated to providing resources and training to empower couples, communities and congregations to build stronger marriages and families. Their 10 Great dates seminar is popular across the USA as well as internationally. The Arps are marriage educators, conference speakers, and authors of over 30 books, including the 10 Great Dates series, No Time for Sex and the Gold Medallion Award-winning The Second Half of Marriage. The Arps have appeared as marriage experts on NBC’s Today, CBS’ This Morning, PBS and Focus on the Family. Their work has been highlighted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, and Time magazine.

Your relationship deserves a checkup too!

The Couple Checkup provides a guide for you to better understand your relationship; whether you are dating, engaged or married.

Drawing on more than 35 years of research and the responses of more than 50,000 couples, The Couple Checkup explores issues such as communication, finances, sexuality, spirituality and parenting. You will compare your results with other couples and learn principles for strenghtening your relationship with one another.

Once your Individual Profile is complete, you can upgrade your account, allowing your partner to take the inventory and allowing you to produce a full Couple Checkup Report that reflects how you both view the relationship.

The leading Christian remarriage authority, Ron L. Deal, teams up with David H. Olson, founder of PREPARE/ENRICH, to give couples vital remarriage advice.

Backed by the world-renowned PREPARE/ENRICH program — and supported by the largest remarriage survey ever conducted — The Remarriage Checkup explores issues such as communication, finances, sexuality, parenting and spirituality.

Included free with the book is an individual profile for the Couple Checkup. When the book and the profile are used together, couples will discover customized, practical help they can apply directly to their own situation, helping them strengthen their relationship and build a marriage to last a lifetime.

The only remarriage book that offers:

• Online Individual Profile on the Couple Checkup
• Personalized feedback on individual relationships
• Prescription for a remarriage that lasts
• Tried-and-true tools for overcoming specific remarriage challenges
• Expert advice and guidance based on extensive research with more than 50,000 couples

“Remarried or marrying again? Ron Deal and David Olson have a gift for you. This book is loaded with specific, useful ideas for helping your marriage reach its full potential. Using a combination of built-in assessment tools (and online tools if you want to go deeper), they will help you identify where you are at, right now, in your relationship. Drawing on surveys with 50,000 remarital couples, you will pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, and develop a realistic plan for having lasting love and joy in your marriage.”

— Scott Stanley, Ph.D. author of the Power of Commitment
Professor, University of Denver

“With the high divorce rate among second and third marriages, this book is long overdue. Ron Deal and David Olson have done their homework, and what they have learned can help you beat the odds. It will take time and effort, but The Remarriage Checkup is the roadmap to a healthy marriage.”

— Gary D. Chapman, Ph.D. author of The Five Love Languages and Love As a Way of Life

“Remarriages have unique challenges and different relational needs than first marriages. Based on a national study of 50,0000 couples, this book is a wonderful resource for remarried couples. Take the online Couple Checkup and get a report about your relationship, read the book, and build a relationship that lasts.”

— Gary Smalley, author of The DNA of Relationships

“The passion that Ron and David have for strengthening remarried couples is evident throughout this wonderfully crafted and easy-to-navigate tool. From the first page, you are drawn in and feel a sense of excitement and hopefulness. You are encouraged to be proactive and intentional about growing a strong, nurturing couple relationship and family. The recommendations are incredibly comprehensive and practical and are based on sound evidence from research on remarried couples. The Remarriage Checkup is the most up-to-date, relevant, complete guide for remarried couples-I know of no other resource like it. You will be educated, enlightened and inspired.”

— Francesca Adler-Baeder, Ph.D. director, National Stepfamily Resource Center
associate professor, Auburn University

“This book will help you thrive in your marriage and beat the odds of divorce. The preventative information is the best I have ever seen and the practical applications cover it all. I have put The Remarriage Checkup at the top of my resource library for couples who find themselves in this beautiful and yet challenging world of remarriage.”

— Jim Burns, Ph.D. president, HomeWord and author of Creating an Intimate Marriage

“This book is a must-read for any remarried couple. It includes the tools needed to create and maintain a wonderful remarriage.”

— Evelyn Husband Thompson, widow of Space Shuttle Columbia commander, Rick Husband, and remarried to Bill Thompson

A Self-Help Book for Couples!
Goals of Empowering Couples:

• Identify your couple strengths.
• Build and increase your couple strengths.
• Identify some of your stumbling blocks.
• Develop a plan for building a stronger and more satisfying couple relationship.

“A treasure-trove of wisdom and practical skills about relationships, backed by good science and written in a conversational style that makes you feel like you are listening to a wise and caring friend.”

Dr. Bill Doherty, author of Intentional Family

“This book will become a marriage classic. I believe that conflict can actually be the doorway to intimacy and deep friendship between mates. That concept is captured extremely well in this book Empowering Couples. I plan to do all I can to get it into the hands of thousands of couples.”

Dr. Gary Smalley, author of Making Love Last Forever

Empowering Couples is built on more than 20 years of clinical experience and research with couples. The foundation is the PREPARE/ENRICH Program, which is one of the most popular couple programs used in the world. More than 45,000 counselors and clergy of all denominations have used this program with more than 1,000,000 couples. This program has also been introduced into 10 other countries.

The book focuses on the 10 most important areas of couple relationships including couple communication, conflict resolution, roles, finances, spiritual beliefs, sexuality, couple closeness and flexibility, parenting and couple goals.

Empowering Couples is based on a national survey of 21,501 married couples. This data was used to identify common stumbling blocks (problematic issues) for couples. In addition, a comparison of happy and unhappy couples was done to identify the strengths of happy couples.

Each Book Chapter Contains:

• Couple Quiz on chapter topic
• Common stumbling blocks (problematic issues)
• Stepping stones for building your couple strengths
• Couple discussion exercises

AUTHORS of Empowering Couples:

David H. Olson, Ph.D. is a professor of Family Social Science at University of Minnesota and is president of Life Innovations. He has received many awards from national organizations (AAMFT, AFTA, ACA, ACME and Penn State University) for his research and programs for couples and families. He is a fellow and clinical member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy (AAMFT).

He has published more than 20 books and 100 journal articles on marriage and the family. His recent books include: Building Relationship: Developing Skills for Life (1999) and Marriage and Family: Diversity and Strengths (2000). He has appeared on numerous talks shows including Oprah, CBS Morning Show and NBC Today Show.

Amy K. Olson, B.A. is a research associate at Life Innovations. She has co-authored several articles on the PREPARE/ENRICH Program. She is co-author of Building Relationships: Developing Skills for Life.