Appreciative Marriage
– a Workshop

♦ Creating the marriage you want

♦ Investing in your best future

♦ Making your dreams come true

Appreciative Inquiry… a practical guide to positive change

Appreciative Inquiry is the study and exploration of what gives life to human systems when they function at their best…

This approach to personal change and organizational change is based on the assumption that questions and dialogue about strengths, successes, values, hopes, and dreams are them-selves transformational.

Diana Whitney & Amanda Trosten-Bloom
in The Power of Appreciative Inquiry (2004).

Appreciative Marriage – a Workshop is a safe, creative learning space for couples committed to developing long-term, satisfying relationships with each other. Relationships, like bank accounts, can appreciate or depreciate in value. This workshop is an appreciative exercise and set of tools for you and your partner. It focuses on identifying, planning, and embracing the kind of relationship that means ‘best’ to you.

WHO IS WELCOME?
This workshop is open to any couple committed to developing a primary, permanent, loving relationship.

WHAT IS THE APPROACH?
The workshop does not address all the issues of marriage. Instead, it identifies tools to assist you in addressing the many threads that weave a marriage. We don’t try to define ‘the perfect marriage.’ But we care very much about positive empowerment in creating and nurturing the most important relationships in our lives.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

§ To be conscious of the power and skilled in the use of appreciative behavior, starting with your family

§ To frame your relationship so that it is aimed at your shared best-case scenario for the future

§ To leverage the love you share today so that it keeps growing year after year

FACILITATORS:
Paul Chaffee, teacher, writer, facilitator, is the founding Executive Director of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. He was trained in Appreciative Inquiry by David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney. He is happily married and has officiated at weddings for 30 years.

Sandra Pilon, Chapel Manager at the Interfaith Center, received her divinity degree at Starr King School for the Ministry. She is certified in Prepare, a national marriage preparation organization, and for years has assisted couples preparing to be married. Sandi is happily married, the mother of a grown daughter, and a frequent wedding officiant.

The Interfaith Center at the Presidio was created to welcome, serve, and celebrate the diverse spiritual wisdom and faith traditions of the Bay Area. At home in the Main Post Interfaith Chapel, the Center is networked with hundreds of interfaith groups locally and globally. We share a common commitment: to promote daily, enduring interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. Since it was built in 1931, the Main Post Chapel has been the site for thousands of weddings, most fre-quently with couples who bring together different religious backgrounds. Appreciative Marriage – a Workshop is designed to offer couples an oppor-tunity take the time and energy to learn how to nurture the relationship in ways that support its vitality and sustainability.