From AudioFile
Two married mental health pros offer a compact guide to tuning up your marriage. It's billed as a pre-marriage diagnostic tool, but it's mainly a primer on the common problems men and women have in long-term relationships. Women are process-oriented and think out loud. Men are more egotistical and goal-oriented, and prefer fighting battles to understanding them. It's Mars and Venus revisited, along with some interesting insights on why marriages go wrong. The writing is authoritative, but the gentle narration speaks to the heart. A final section on including God in your marriage is tastefully presented and contributes to making the program a nice guide for anyone whose marriage is threatening to go off course. T.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
This workbook shows women of engaged couples and new marriages how they can identify and overcome stumbling blocks to a healthy marriage.


From the Back Cover
This workbook is designed to help you -- the woman -- explore the issues and practice the skills presented in the book Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts. It is full of lively exercises and enlightening self-tests that will help you and your partner apply what you are learning directly to your relationship. - This version of the workbook approaches the issues from a woman's perspective, taking into account your unique psychology, needs, and approach to life. - Each exercise includes an estimate of how long it will take, so you can easily fit the program into a busy schedule. - Call-outs in the book let you know the best times to do the exercises as you read. - Activities to practice throughout your married life are included to help you keep your love alive. These exercises are designed to help you uncover potential problems and deal with them before they emerge. They will help you and your partner communicate better. They will help you see your differences and practice positive methods for resolving conflict. Best of all, they are designed to help you cultivate intimacy and help you on your way to a rich, lifelong love.


About the Author
Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott are codirectors of the Center for Relationship Development at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), a groundbreaking program dedicated to teaching the basics of good relationships. Les Parrott is a professor of clinical psychology at SPU, and Leslie is a marriage and family therapist at SPU. The Parrotts are authors of the Gold Medallion Award-winning Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, Becoming Soul Mates, Love Is, Relationships, and When Bad Things Happen to Good Marriages. They have been featured on Oprah, CBS This Morning, CNN, and The View, and in USA Today and the New York Times. They are also frequent guest speakers and have written for a variety of magazines. They live in Seattle, Washington, with their two sons.Leslie Parrott is co-director, with her husband Dr. Les Parrott, of the Center for Relationships Development on the campus of Seattle Pacific University (SPU), a groundbreaking program dedicated to teaching the basics of good relationships. Leslie is also a marriage and family therapist as well as the coauthor of the Gold Medallion Award-wining Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, The Love List, Becoming Soul Mates, Love Talk, and Your Time Starved Marriage. Leslie is also the author of If You Ever Needed Friends It’s Now and the children’s book, God Loves You Nose to Toes. She has been featured on Oprah and CBS This Morning, and in USA Today and the New York Times. Leslie is a frequent guest speaker and has written for a variety of magazines. The Parrotts' radio program, Love Talk, can be heard on stations throughout North America. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with Les and their two sons.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Exercise One:
Your Personal Ten Commandments
This exercise is designed to help you uncover some of your unspoken rules. It will take about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Try to articulate some of the unspoken rules you grew up with. Take your time to think it over. These unspoken rules are generally so ingrained that we are rarely aware of them.
Once both of you have articulated your personal ten commandments, share them with each other. Are there rules you would like to change? Take a moment to discuss how unspoken rules might affect your marriage.
1. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
6. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
7. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
8. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
9. _____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
10. ____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Anytime you have a fight or disagreement, ask yourself: Is this fight a result of one of us breaking an unspoken rule? If so, add that rule to your list, and discuss with your wife how you will handle that situation in the future.
EXERCISE TWO:
Making Your Roles Conscious
Listed below are a number of chores or life tasks that will need to be handled by you or your wife. To make your unconscious understanding of roles conscious, first indicate how your parents handled these tasks. Then write down how you would like to divide up the tasks, according to your understanding of your own and your wifes interests, time, and abilities. Finally, compare your list with your wifes list and discuss the results. Put your final decision of who will do what in the last column, and be prepared to renegotiate when your circumstances change. This exercise will take about thirty minutes.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This workbook is designed to help you -- the woman -- explore the issues and practice the skills presented in the book Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts. It is full of lively exercises and enlightening self-tests that will help you and your partner apply what you are learning directly to your relationship. - This version of the workbook approaches the issues from a woman's perspective, taking into account your unique psychology, needs, and approach to life. - Each exercise includes an estimate of how long it will take, so you can easily fit the program into a busy schedule. - Call-outs in the book let you know the best times to do the exercises as you read. - Activities to practice throughout your married life are included to help you keep your love alive. These exercises are designed to help you uncover potential problems and deal with them before they emerge. They will help you and your partner communicate better. They will help you see your differences and practice positive methods for resolving conflict. Best of all, they are designed to help you cultivate intimacy and help you on your way to a rich, lifelong love.

Author Biography: Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott are codirectors of the Center for Relationship Development at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), a groundbreaking program dedicated to teaching the basics of good relationships. Les Parrott is a professor of clinical psychology at SPU, and Leslie is a marriage and family therapist at SPU. The Parrotts are authors of the Gold Medallion Award-winning Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, Becoming Soul Mates, Love Is, Relationships, and When Bad Things Happen to Good Marriages. They have been featured on Oprah, CBS ThisMorning, CNN, and The View, and in USA Today and the New York Times. They are also frequent guest speakers and have written for a variety of magazines. The Parrotts serve as marriage ambassadors for the Oklahoma governor's ten-year Marriage Initiative. They live in Seattle, Washington, with their two sons.

Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott are codirectors of the Center for Relationship Development at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), a groundbreaking program dedicated to teaching the basics of good relationships. Les Parrott is a professor of clinical psychology at SPU, and Leslie is a marriage and family therapist at SPU. The Parrotts are authors of the Gold Medallion Award-winning Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts, Becoming Soul Mates, Love Is, Relationships, and When Bad Things Happen to Good Marriages. They have been featured on Oprah, CBS This Morning, CNN, and The View, and in USA Today and the New York Times. They are also frequent guest speakers and have written for a variety of magazines. The Parrotts serve as marriage ambassadors for the Oklahoma governor's ten-year Marriage Initiative. They live in Seattle, Washington, with their two sons.

SYNOPSIS