Power of Two Online Marriage Counseling

In just a little over 9 months Brian and I will be husband and wife. I always thought the saying, “I’m marrying my best friend” was a little cheesy, but it really does feel like the right way to describe how I feel about marrying Brian.

He is my best friend – the one with whom I can share my greatest joys and my deepest fears. I know he loves me for who I am, not who he thinks I can be with the right amount of change.

I know I talk about Brian a lot here on my blog, and perhaps people draw certain conclusions about our relationship because of it. I rarely talk about anything but the good things in our relationship (besides the occasional boat fiasco here and there).

Power of Two Online Marriage Counseling

It’s true that there are so very many things to celebrate about our relationship, but it doesn’t mean that either of us are perfect. I can be impatient, impulsive, demanding and overly sensitive, just to name a few. I’m not going to sit here and list Brian’s faults, but I’m sure he has some qualities that he would put on a things-I’d-like-to-work-on-about-myself list (I think most of us do.)

And yet, as a couple we just work. Sure, we get stressed, we get frustrated with each other, we argue – but the love that we share is so deep and so true that there’s always a way to resolve any friction that comes between us.

The voice of reason isn’t always one of ours, per se. Sometimes it takes a third party’s perspective for one or both of us to sit back and re-evaluate the situation. A fresh perspective is helpful in many situations; it’s the reason a lot of people turn to couples counseling to help work through their communication issues.

Power of Two Online Marriage Counseling

But sometimes counseling comes with its own set of issues. We live in a world with tightly-packed schedules that make it tough to squeeze in time for counseling. And it can get expensive to go to counseling sessions regularly, especially if you have to pay for much of it out of pocket.

But to our advantage, we also live in a digital world, which makes it easier to get access to certain things… like Power of Two Online, an online relationship education program designed to teach couples skills for communication, conflict resolution and emotion regulation, and to help build trust, support, and intimacy.

I was recently given the chance to review this online marriage counseling program, which was funded by a grant from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services under their Healthy Marriages Initiative. I will admit wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first heard about it. When you go for counseling, you, well… go to a counselor, right? Besides, Brian and I have never been on the verge of breaking up – and isn’t that the reason you’d get counseling?

Power of Two Online Marriage Counseling

Not necessarily. Sure, the Power of Two (Po2) curriculum is designed to help couples who want to improve their relationship… but Brian and I found that even though we don’t feel like our relationship needs help, the program has helped us communicate even better, and has helped us change our tones when we do disagree.

Once you sign up for an account, Po2 clearly and easily explains what to expect from the program, and how to use it. The great thing is that you can go at your own pace (use it a few minutes per day or an hour per week… log on during your lunch break or before bed…) and choose the skills you want to work on, when you want to work on them: communication, emotional regulation, collaborative decision-making and positivity/support.

Power of Two Online Marriage Counseling

And it’s cool because there are fun animations and characters that make the information and activities relatable and helpful to young couples like us:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQJvlFsrySc[/youtube]

One of the first things Power of Two asks you to do is to set a goal for your relationship. I put this as my goal: “I want to have a marriage that is open, honest and loving, like my parents do.” And no matter where I navigate on the Po2 site, that goal is always prominently shown on the left side of my screen, reminding me that the activities I’m doing are helping make my relationship with Brian even stronger.

There are so many subtle ways to change one’s tone or intent to communicate more effectively, and this is something I’m really working on with the Power of Two activities… for example, taking something Brian says and, instead of interjecting with my opinion right away, making sure to digest his point of view aloud and try to relate to it somehow.

Another recent way I used some of my Po2 skills was when we were talking about some of the houses we’ve looked at to buy recently. I heard myself starting to say, “I want to live downtown…” so I caught myself and used the more friendly-sounding “would like” in place of “want.”

“I would like to live downtown. It would be so fun to be able to walk to get our coffee on weekend mornings,” I said.

Power of Two Online Marriage Counseling

See how it just changed the tone of the conversation?

This is just one of the many skills I’ve learned through the activities available on Po2. There is an entire library of information on the site, so whatever area you find you need to work on, you can literally just click on the links in the library to access the tools to help you… videos, podcasts, worksheets, dialogue cards, articles etc.

Brian and I both found Power of Two to be an effective, enlightening and dare I say it – fun! – way to work on our communication skills. So if you want to learn how to communicate with your spouse or partner better, try Power of Two. It is an affordable, personalized opportunity for you to learn the skills to communicate and make shared decisions at every point in your relationship.

You know what? You really can’t put a price on appreciating each other… and Power of Two does a great job of reminding us to remind ourselves of that.

Here is a video review Brian and I did with our thoughts on Power of Two:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RJBFKemsY0[/youtube]

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me – with my own opinions – for Power of Two