Vow Marriage Program

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Enroll in a VOW Marriage Workshop TODAY! In a fun and exciting workshop with other like-minded couples, you'll learn to understand your strengths and growth areas as a couple, assess the seasons of your relationship, align your values, goals, and actions, develop greater ability to use skills for bridging to one another, make more mutually satisfying decisions, enjoy deeper intimacy, and build a more committed and confident future together.

VOW is now on Facebook! Visit with other VOW couples, see photos, join in discussions and check out our upcoming events.

The Wellness Pointe's VOW Healthy Marriage Education Initiative is specifically designed to help build strong marriages. VOW is an innovative and interactive program designed to help young adult single persons and couples access information that will enable them to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to foster and sustain healthy marriages. The program services 8 counties in Gilmer, Henderson, Longview, Marshall, Pittsburg, Carthage and Tyler.

With more than 30 years of experience as a marriage counselor, Dr. Gary Chapman has heard it all. He has helped couples at every stage of marriage and at pivotal points in their relationshipsfrom those just discovering the joys and trial of marriage to those who are ready to call it quits.
After many years of counseling, Dr. Chapman noticed a pattern: everyone he had ever counseled had a love language, a primary way of expressing and interpreting love. He also discovered that, for whatever reason, people are usually drawn to those who speak a different love language than their own.
Of the countless ways we can show love to one another, five key categories, or five love languages, proved to be universal and comprehensiveeveryone has a love language, and we all identify primarily with one of the five love languages:

Dear VOW: My fianc and I are getting married this summer, and we want to prepare and set goals for our marriage ahead. Are marriage education classes right for us and how will our relationship benefit by enrolling?
Marriage classes can provide many benefits to you as a couple. Your marital relationship is a complex process of human interaction and the most important one in your lives. As you probably know by now, men and women think and communicate differently.

Dear VOW: With me and my husband, one of us always has to be right! How can we disagree without it turning into an argument?
You can disagree without evolving a discussion into an argument by simply agreeing to disagree. Before any more arguments take place, make the time to set some ground rules together. Here is a list to help get you and your spouse on the right track:

Talk to each other in a calm voice. Remember not to yell or scream. Even if you get extremely frustrated, yelling is not the answer to get your point across.

Communication between individuals can be a powerful tool that nurtures positive feelings of love, admiration and respect. On the other hand though, it can create negative emotions such as hurt feelings or anger. Learning an effective way to communicate will help prevent conflict from damaging your relationship. Listening, though a silent act, is still an active part of communication. In short, listening is not a spectator sport!

Money Its one of the biggest topics on everyones minds these days. Handling the finances in a relationship can sometimes be stressful and might cause tension in your marriage. VOW offers tips and advice on how to minimize tension and open the lines of communication. VOW Marriage Coordinator, Schrundagale Griffith, answers real couples questions about budgeting and guides them to solutions right for their personal situations.

Living together as a couple before marriage is a big step, and with that decision there are lots of questions and concerns a couple may have. VOW Coordinator, Deena Shelton, gives some real East Texas couples great advice to very genuine inquiries.

Dear VOW - Between raising kids, soccer practice and our busy lives, how do we make the most out of the little time we have alone as a married couple?

Start with managing the time you do have alone. We all get caught up in busy work (doing something constantly) that can wait. Every moment that you have together should be spent wisely. You need to be proactive in planning your time together. Turn off distractions such as TV, the computer and work. Go for a walk or sit on the porch and watch the sunset. Taking time each day to share the days events and to connect with each other is essential. Affectionate gestures are also very important. Its time to remind yourself how important small affectionate gestures can be.