Lesson 3 Introduction

In lesson two we learned about interpersonal skills. Awareness and Empathy are foundational skills that help us to create real connection and open the way for understanding. We learned about the forms of communication and how we are always communicating something, even without trying. We learned ways to listen, the importance of self-disclosure in relationship building, and about conflict styles and resolution.

The previous two lessons have focused a great deal on individual preparation for a relationship. In this lesson we will discuss some important topics that couples will both want to learn about prior to making a  deeper commitment, as well as questions that a couple will want to understand the answers to together, before fully committing to a marriage relationship.

We will begin this lesson with relationship education to learn about signs or red flags that one might find in a potential partner, that could indicate challenges or danger if the relationship continues. We will then learn about the Relationship Attachment (RAM) Model for relationship development (Van Epp, 2007) and some key couple relationship principles discovered by marriage researchers John Gottman and Nan Silver (2015). To conclude the lesson, we will learn about covert contracts, how to recognize them and what to do about them.