Family Wellness is offered to individuals, couples and families from all walks of life and many cultures. It is an enrichment program that communities can provide for their couples and families. Schools, churches, hospitals, industry, day care centers, mental health professionals, business and interested individuals couples and parents conduct programs all over the world.

Survival Skills for Healthy Families is a quickly learned and easily adapted family education program, which has proven effective in a variety of communities, cultures, and languages. As a certified Family Wellness instructor, you will work with groups of individuals and families as you teach new ways of living and working together in a strength-based workshop. Each of the six sessions is organized around practical guidelines for healthy family interactions – building on the positive, healthy habits that exist within a family.

The Strongest Link: The Couple has been used for Couples Retreats, marital therapy, couples enrichment, and for series dedicated just to couples. More recently the focus on couples and marriage in the United States brings new resources and emphasis on strengthening couples and especially helping low income couples. Our experience in this field and our dedication to bringing the skills and concepts of counseling and the therapeutic profession to the community led to our writing this Handbook.

The primary purpose of this Instructor Handbook is to provide Family Wellness Instructors with additional theory, content, and skills for working with Couples. This handbook accompanies the Instructor Manual. The curriculum is intended for use in many ways that can serve to teach skills and provide support for Couples.

There are six core sessions that include content on communications skills, problem solving, knowing personal values and goals as well as couple goals, money management, intimacy, and paying back your community with the skills you’ve learned. Additional lesson plans are included for: Stepfamilies, Parent and In-law issues, Domestic Violence, Parenting as a Couple, New and Expectant Parents, and Separations from military deployment, business, health or jail.

There are several examples of groups using Family Wellness adaptations as their Marriage Initiative curriculum or for Couples. The Cleveland project “BETTER TOGETHER” started by Sandra Bender and Judy Charlick; Louisiana State “MARRIAGE MATTERS” and “Raising Your Child Together”; and Grand Rapid’s Pine Rest programs use Family Wellness.

The Families Affected by Domestic Violence curriculum is offered for those who wish to provide families and adults with the skills, concepts and resources to prevent domestic violence. It also provides for those working with perpetrators and victims along with the mandated programs in most United States cities. We are including concepts and strategies that are of particular use for families in military and law enforcement – where special circumstances make it even harder for a victim to be safe and for perpetrators to be stopped and directed to help. The content is adaptable for a 10 week prevention program from 20 to 30 hours in length and it can be used for perpetrators either subsequent to the California mandated 52 week perpetrator course or concurrent with any other treatment. The theory, content, skills and resources included here have been used successfully for over 23 years through our Family Wellness Program.

This manual is meant to be used as an addendum to the Family Wellness Instructor Manual and is to be used by certified Family Wellness Instructors. It is not intended to be the sole source of information for a training class. It is highly recommended that Certified Instructors attend the two day Advanced Instructor Training.

The The Wellness Way For Healthy Step Families curriculum offers resources for those who work with Step Families. There are wonderful examples in every community of stepfamilies that have worked well and produced skilled and healthy children.  There are also many stepfamilies in every community looking for the path towards health while feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, or disorganized.  The materials in this Handbook are offered as additional resources for Stepfamilies along with the skills to use them effectively. The concepts and skills presented in this Handbook are based on the research of what works for families to be successful and, most specifically, for stepfamilies.