On Monday 16 October we relaunched our much loved course for Engaged & Newly Married Couples. Led by renowned educator Joanne Dove, this course aims to provide young couples with the tools that will enable them to make the transition from being single to living as part of a couple. “Learning in a place of calm rather than a place of crisis” is a key theme of this course which is the realisation of a dream to re-establish JCounselling’s leadership in the field of enabling couples and families to build better relationships throughout the various life stages that they will encounter.
“We are constantly presented with situations for which we don’t have the necessary tools to navigate. It’s far better to ‘learn a new dance’ from people best equipped to guide you – and in a supportive environment – rather than figuring things out on the hop when tensions are high and not conducive to effective outcomes,” said JCounselling Chair, Mark Dembovsky.
Clinical Director, Tova Hersh, was keen to explain that “our aim is to draw on the enormous skills of our Counsellors and other experts in the field, to present programmes to support people through life cycle changes including marriage, bereavement, empty nesting and those who are newly single”.
The Engaged and Newly Married Programme covers topics ranging from effective communication, negotiating skills, financial budgeting (to be run in conjunction with Mesila UK who help people achieve financial stability) and intimacy (led by Chana Hughes and Psychosexual Therapist, David Goldberg).
“Joanne Dove was the obvious person to lead this programme,” explained JCounselling Executive Committee member, Tina Son. “Her sensitivity, enthusiasm and engagement with this topic is drawn from years of experience and thousands of opportunities to shape the lives of young people.”
Joanne Dove shared with the participants that “this course was the fulfilment of a vision to bring young people together to learn the skills that will help them build strong, meaningful and uplifting Jewish homes”.
In the first session, Joanne shared 10 Key Soundbites for building positive and fulfilling relationships. These can be accessed here.