Couples’ retreat introduced to help rekindle ‘love and fire’ in relationships

With the significant increase in the divorce rate in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), a local psychologist has introduced a couples retreat, designed to help strengthen marriages and other such relationships.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT yesterday, Dr Jozelle Miller spoke of the upcoming retreat, which will take place at the Young Island Resort from Saturday, February 11 to Sunday, February 12.

As chief executive officer of The Valeo Experience – a psychological consultancy company – Miller said that the retreat aims to help couples rekindle the love in their relationships, and to deepen their understanding of each other.

“The aim is to have couples come and take a step back from all the stress, take a time out for themselves to re-embrace each other, to figure out ‘why am I in this relationship’,” she explained.

Additionally, Dr Miller explained that research conducted locally suggests that with approximately 500 marriages occurring in one year, there is a high likelihood that almost 200 of them will end in divorce.

“Today, people are not very tolerant… These days, if a marriage lasts five years, you would give a high five!”

She elaborated: “Persons are at a place now where there is this whole surge of independence where some say ‘well I don’t need you and I’m not willing to put in the effort’. But relationships are hard work because… you have one individual coming with all of these likes, limitations and strengths and you’re meeting someone else. So how do we merge that so everyone can co-exist and be happy? These are some of the things that we are going to bring out in this retreat.”

At a cost of $800 per couple, the overnight retreat will include a cocktail reception party, accommodation and meals, use of all the amenities at the resort, seminars and marriage building activities with the experts.

A psychologist from the United States, Dr Claudius Davis will also be coaching at this retreat – operating under the theme ‘Refresh, Rekindle, Renew’ – along with Dr Miller.

She further encouraged couples to attend the retreat, not only to rekindle the “love and fire” in their relationships, but also to help strengthen the family unit.

“We realise as well that we have a lot of dysfunctional family lives, and when you look at the grand scheme of things, you have children acting out, dysfunctional families, it goes back to the crux of it in where we start – man and woman.”

At the end of the retreat couples can choose to take part in ceremonies where they can renew their vows (for married couples) or make a promise of commitment to each other (unmarried couples).

At extra cost, couples can book an extra night at the resort, partake of a couples’ spa date, have a couples’ photoshoot, book babysitting services and have individual sessions.

Dr Miller promised: “This [retreat] is going to be about honesty, this is going to be about you really wanting to go to the next level with your partner, the next level in your relationship.”

She also revealed that she is hoping to make this couples’ retreat an annual event, with next year’s theme already decided.

“It’s going to be surrounding sexual activity; how can you please your partner and continue to be happy because at the end of the day you’re going to be having sex with somebody for the rest of your life, especially if you’re married… We sometimes have couples coming forward and, especially the women, saying they are not sexually satisfied… How we can put a little spice back in!”

The Valeo Experience intends to look at addressing issues other than marriage and relationships over a longer period of time. These will be geared around athletes (mental toughness), workplace conflict resolution and other programmes that can “facilitate some change in people’s lives.”

Persons can also opt to just attend the cocktail reception party at a cost of $250 per couple. Tickets and registration forms (registration ends January 31) can be collected from the Aeropost office on Halifax Street. (JSV)