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Welcome To Marriage Quest ®
Private Marriage Counseling Retreats For Couples
Is your marriage in trouble? Have you been trying to find a good solution? Relief can happen quickly. Thousands of couples have experienced significant results in our 3-day marriage counseling retreat program.
Come experience the benefits of the highly rated Marriage Quest program for yourself.
Marriage Quest Can Help
Is Your Marriage Falling Apart?
Creating a healthy and happy marriage is hard work. Most people have never learned how to maintain an emotional connection with their spouse, nurture an exciting sex life, or navigate difficult conversations in a way that actually strengthens a marriage. The goal of a Marriage Quest Couples Retreat is to provide a reality check on the state of your marriage while also helping you to create a tailored manual for your relationship. Unlike other intensive retreat programs, we advocate for marriage but not at any price. Many couples are able to turn out their marriage with the right support, but in some cases the best answer for everyone to be happy is a structured separation.
Our Professional Opinion
Many couples come to us for a reality check on their compatibility and the future of their marriage. We always start with the same hypothesis that your marriage can be successful if you apply the right skills. In some cases, couples are not compatible, and we can help you explore your relationship options.
Objective & Non-Religious
Our work with you is based in scientific practices and is not a religious retreat. We don't take sides of either partner, and we can help you define your marriage in whatever manner is respectful to both of you and makes you happy and fulfilled.
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Better Than a Year of Traditional Therapy
Marriage Quest Counseling Gets Results
Many couples have told us that traditional therapy is slow, frustrating, and has sometimes caused more problems than it provided solutions. A Marriage Quest Program is like warp speed therapy. Imagine having a dozen or more really good therapy sessions back to back instead of spreading them out over 12 months.
We meet privately with one couple at a time to address your specific needs. Most importantly, our retreat program is designed to give you a formula and process that you can replicate once you return home. While we are happy to provide aftercare if needed, we want you and your spouse to become self sufficient as you continually improve your relationship or make a decision about the fate of your marriage.
Come experience what many other couples have found to be a more satisfying, cost effective, and time efficient way to nourish or heal your relationship.
Services
What We Provide
Considering Divorce
Many couples considering divorce believe they are no longer compatible with each other. This is a painful thought, but the reality is that you probably are compatible and just have to develop the skills to repair what has been hurt.
Midlife Crisis
People between the ages of 35 and 65 often wrestle with big questions regarding their meaning, purpose, and direction in life. In the world of work, the 40s begins a time of existential exploration. Feeling appreciated and acknowledged becomes an important contribution to our self-esteem and either keeps us going or if it is nonexistent it stresses us out.
Sexless Marriage
Most sexless marriages start with an emotional disconnection. So in order to not only survive a sexless marriage but to actually thrive, you and your partner need to have a deep conversation about your desires and fantasies both directly related and adjacent to your sex life.
Infidelity
Regardless of the reasons and context of an affair, it hurts and trust is significantly broken. Unfortunately, while divorce feels like a solution, about 80% of couples who separate due to an affair eventually regret that decision.
Resentment
Resentment in marriage usually builds up over time from unresolved conflicts. Failure to develop closure around disagreements, traumatic experiences, and other tense moments in your relationship tend to fester and become worse with time.
Couples Communication
Feeling unheard, misunderstood, or dismissed leads many couples to consider the fate of their relationship. Communication therapy is foundational to every Marriage Quest Retreat, and our goal is to help each spouse feel heard, understood, and respected.
About Us
Your Marriage Therapy Experts
Dr. Israel Helfand and his wife, Cathie Helfand, have worked together as a couple with couples for 40 years. Today they facilitate Marriage Quest and Sexploration retreats at their homestead in rural northern Vermont. Together, they developed the Marriage Quest process with Dr Barry Ginsberg of the Center of Relationship Enhancement and have been running their marriage retreats since 1995. Their son, Dr David Helfand, has recently joined the practice after successfully running couples therapy retreats for nearly a decade. Other therapists will join the Marriage Quest team in the future.
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Learn How To Improve Your Relationship Now
We created a free relationship quiz so that you and your partner can learn what areas of your relationship are strong and what needs improvement. The quiz takes about 60 seconds to complete, and you will receive your results immediately.