The Family Wellness Ministry and the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries from the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco are offering the much-anticipated relationship series, Eight Dates, based on the book Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love by John Gottman, PhD, and Julie Schwartz Gottman, PhD.
You will meet the Family Wellness Team who will guide you on your Eight Dates journey and get you ready to transform your relationship with each other.
Over the last two years, over 400 couples have participated virtually and now the FWM team is also offering training and resources to start Eight Dates in the local parish through Eight Dates Parish Edition. George Papageorge, Family Wellness Ministry Director said: “We are overjoyed by the positive response by 8 Dates participants and how this experience has been transformational in helping couples reconnect and start to dialogue about essential conversations that matter.”
The series will be held bi-monthly on Thursday evenings from October 13, 2022 – February 2, 2023 via Zoom and is offered free of charge to all interested couples. The series is separated into biweekly Zoom gatherings where the members of the Family Wellness Ministry team cover a specific relationship topic through prayer, reflection, interactive questions, video presentations, break-out groups, and closing remarks. Homework for each attending couple is to read the corresponding chapter from Eight Dates, and to plan a date night to discuss and put into practice the advice from both the session and the book.
Eight Dates draws on rigorous scientific and psychological research about how we fall in love, using case studies of real-life couples whose relationships have improved after committing time to each other and following the dates. Drs. John and Julie Gottman have spent over three decades studying the habits of 3,000 couples and are bestselling authors and the founders of The Gottman Institute, which uses an extensive research-based approach to improving family relationships.
For more information and to register for this free program, please visit the Family Wellness website.
