Partners 'n Sync
The Connected Couple™
Deepen your relationship [2½ days]

Long work hours, financial worries or business trips can place stress on relationships. Audit your relationship [PDF]. If you don't tick off anything, you don't need to read further. If you are serious about enriching your relationship, the next The Connected Couple™ program is for you.

The Connected Couple™ program is a lot of fun. It’s also challenging. You will learn to express yourself authentically and value each other even more as you deepen your relationship. If you are gay, straight, married or living together, you are welcome. The program is structured providing ample time for you and your partner to have private time together.

Learn:
- How your past can influence the present
- How to stay in tough conversations
- How to express yourself authentically
- How to surface undiscussables
- How to differentiate yourself and stay emotionally connected
- How to have fun

The Connected Couple™ program consists of 5 modules:

1 - How your past influences the present
Why we fall for tall dark short fat handsome blonde pretty thin people

When we fall in love, our new love transforms the way we think, feel and perceive. We make links to the past and bring unconscious projections and expectations into our new relationship. We are in love... But are we?

Aim
Explore and understand how your past can influence and impact your relationship today.

Explore
· Explore the role your personal history plays at a sub-conscious level in selecting your partner
· Set the stage for self discovery and exploration of your 'own stuff'
· Increase understanding of yourself, your partner and your relationship

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2 - About individuality and emotional connection
Get a return on your emotional investment

You will gain insight into how you communicate and how you respond to power imbalances and conflict in your love relationship. Learn how to balance your need for individuality and emotional connection through authentic self expression and equal emotional investments in each other.

Remember when you first met your partner – the gay abandon and loss of control? Remember the "urge to merge"? The giddy desire to be with your partner all the time and the sacrifices you made [time, money, friends etc] to meet your partner’s needs. You did all that. And now there’s a catch…

Aim
Restore the balance in your love relationship through equal emotional investments in each other

Explore
· What is the downside if you love too much?
· What is the upside if you love too little?
· How to balance individuality and emotional connection

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3 - Learning to speak from your heart
The rewards of authentic communication

Emotional competence is the ability to be in touch with our feelings, to wrap words around them and to articulate them to our partner. It’s about being able to sense and respond to your partner. Couples who know how to sense and respond to each other experience a deepening of their relationship.

Aim
Enrich the quality of your relationship by learning what it takes to have real conversations and to be an emotionally intelligent lover.

Explore
· Learn how mutual self-disclosure establishes connection while maintaining your independence and self regard
· Learn how to enhance clarity and reduce misunderstandings, especially under stress
· Explore how to navigate from positions to interests in order to find more common ground

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4 - What's after the Kama Sutra?
About lovemaking and emotional connection

Many of the TV programs that feature couples trying to sort out their sexual problems seem to reinforce the Mars versus Venus stereotype. Most programs deal with superficial issues like technique and experimentation but fail to deal with fundamental issues such as sexual baggage, destructive games, resentment, emotional gridlock and a fear of becoming vulnerable.

Deeply rewarding sex and emotional fulfillment are sought after in most committed relationships, but either one or both may elude us.

Aim
Lovemaking and exquisite sex are the ingredients of a sexually and emotionally fulfilling relationship, and are attainable!

Explore
· Explore the impacts of sexual baggage and destructive games
· Gain understanding of what causes emotional gridlock
· Uncover the myths and realities of a deeply fulfilling sexual encounter
· Discover deeply rewarding sex and emotional fulfillment

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5 - Growing closer is a conscious choice
The practice of intimacy

An authentic love relationship includes empathy, passion, rapport, meaningful communication, romance, deeply satisfying sex and intimacy. The practice of intimacy is about choosing to grow closer to your partner and to value your partner as you value yourself.

Aim
Explore how to make conscious choices to nurture your relationship

Explore
· Recognize the various patterns of intimacy avoidance
· Move towards deeper rapport
· Empathy and acceptance are the essential DNA of love relationships - learn the art of empathy
· Develop a ConnectedCouple™ contract with each other.

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The Connected Couple™ begins on a Thursday evening and ends on the Saturday evening. Please contact us with any questions you might have. Venue details and program pre-work is sent via email.

BarOn Emotional Intelligence Quotient Inventory - EQ-i™
Optional - complete a BarOn Emotional Intelligence Quotient Report online prior to attending this program [preferred]. The BarOn EQ-i™ has been tested on over 110,000 individuals worldwide and is the first scientifically developed and validated measure of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence reflects one's ability to deal with daily environment challenges and helps predict one's success in life, including professional and personal pursuits.