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Marriage retreats, seminars & conferences for military marriages
Return to Military Marriage Resources - LINK
Active duty military, be sure to contact your chaplain for marriage enrichment opportunities.
Battle Flag Ranch (Mount Juliet, TN)
At Battle Flag Ranch, we live to serve the selfless. As a veteran myself who returned home from the dangers of war in Afghanistan, my family and I understand the difficulty of reentry into "normal" life with family and friends. Truth is, life just no longer feels normal. Our heart breaks and our souls bleeds over the pain of each and every serviceman and servicewoman who may have physically survived the horrors of war abroad, but whose families now face the threat of destruction at home. We are a short term bed and breakfast respite for battle-wearied veterans and their equally weary spouse, providing safety and sanctuary as they relearn the delicate art of love and communication in marriage.
The mission of Battle Flag Ranch is to provide respite for battle weary veterans and their equally weary spouses and families. The ranch offers literal shelter by giving veterans and their families the much deserved, yet sadly rare gifts of a beautifully serene getaway and a brief season for quiet refreshment and renewal.
Dedicated to eradicating the astronomical divorce rate among our Armed Services individuals, Battle Flag Ranch helps America's defenders face the new marching orders of an often unexpected struggle: reestablishing wholeness in their families. As a unique, positive, and encouraging community resource for all military service veterans and their spouses, Battle Flag Ranch helps families find the emotional ceasefire they need to once again band together and reengage life as a united front.
Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove - Military Marriage Seminar (Asheville, NC)
Active-duty, Guard and Reserve service members and their spouses who have deployed previously or may deploy in the future are invited to a FREE Military Marriage Seminar. A biblical perspective on marriage with application for the unique experiences of military life will be presented by our Bible teacher. Additional workshops will also be offered to assist with the challenges of deployment and the unique stresses placed on a military marriage due to the demands of the battlefield. Discover what God has for you as you pull away to listen to God's Word, God's people and God's Spirit during this special weekend.
Boulder Crest Retreat (Virginia and Arizona)
COUPLES PATHH - Your family matters to us. We know that each family member plays a crucial role in the health and wellbeing of one another. Couples PATHH is a free, 5-day program led by a team of trained combat veterans, based on the foundational teachings of Posttraumatic Growth. Through a specially designed curriculum, couples learn more about themselves and each other. The Boulder Crest Team helps couples rediscover the love and connections that originally brought them together.
Camp Homefront Retreats - All Secure Foundation (Southern Pines, NC)
All Secure Foundation's Camp Homefront was one of the first Special Operations warrior couples workshops in the country specializing in results-driven tools and tactics to help couples reconnecting after living through the effects of war trauma and countless deployments apart.
With the divorce rate soaring in the Special Operations community, coupled with the suicide statistic that 89% of war fighters take their lives after a family disturbance, we knew that it was critical to not just train the war fighter on how to come home, but to train the whole family unit creating positive generational impact.
Our small group sessions are led by Tom and Jen Satterly and ASF's marriage and trauma expert Stacey Stone (LCSW) who has decades of experience helping both the individual and the couple heal.
While our retreats fill up fast, you don't have to wait to work with one of our coaches. Please see our one-on-one coaching page for more immediate assistance.
If you qualify, please fill out the form below. Camp Homefront has limited availability. You will be contacted when retreat season is open to fill out forms and provide proof of service.
CREDO Marriage Enrichment Retreats (Navy)
CREDO's mission is to strengthen spiritual well-being and individual resilience through workshops and retreats for Department of the Navy service members, civilians, and families.
Since 1971, CREDO has offered transformational workshops, seminars and retreats specifically designed to inspire hope and strengthen spiritual well-being and enrich the lives of service members and families.
Check out the map for more information on your nearest CREDO site to request information on upcoming retreats.
Family Life's Weekend to Remember Conference (offers a scholarship to military families; does not include hotel reservations)
Military-Focused Marriage Retreat Sessions -- A wife watches in anticipation for her uniformed husband to walk from the jet-bridge through the gate. She waits eagerly to be in his arms again. It’s been a long year. She wonders what it will be like to be together again―in-person. Will it be like starting over?
Marriage has both ups and downs, joys and struggles. But for military families, we understand that your marriage looks different. Deployment, uncertainty, and constant transition add strain and stress to your relationship.
This is why Cru Military and FamilyLife have teamed up to plan special military-friendly Weekend to Remember getaways. The unique military culture requires a unique ministry.
The is a marriage retreat providing couples the messages they need to hear to encourage, inspire, challenge and refresh their relationship. Then one-on-one times provide an environment to process with each other how they can apply these messages and move toward deeper connection.
While we offer Weekend to Remember events in more than 80 locations, select marriage retreats include a Saturday breakout session specifically for military couples. This session will equip you with a specific set of communication tools for use during deployment, reintegration, and transitions.
ACTIVE military, Reserves or Guard can receive a discount of at least $200 OFF per couple. To qualify for this special discounted rate, please call 1-800-FL-Today (800-358-6329) to register.
Hotel and meals are extra. Please contact the getaway hotel for reservation and rates.
Forever Families - Marriage Under Fire Retreats
A dedicated retreat for military and first responder couples. - Whether you're military or a first responder, the impact of struggles in your relationship affects your ability to perform both at home and at work. The number one cause of on-the-job distractions is problems at home. For most people, distractions at work may mean a drop in productivity. For you, distractions may cost you your life. And it's no news to you that the marriage and entire family are impacted by the stress, multiple deployments, changing shifts, a lack of respect and support from the culture around you, fear, and traumatic experiences you and your family endure.
You need a place to retreat from all that and run away with each other for a while. A place where you can relax, talk, get some tools and ideas to protect your relationship. A place where you can be surrounded by people who get it and are eager to show their support by the care they lavish on you. And that's what the Marriage Under Fire Retreats are all about.
CLICK HERE for a current list of retreats.
Freedom Alliance - Heroes Retreats (Nationwide)
Strong family relationships are vital to a service member’s rehabilitation. That’s why Freedom Alliance provides retreats and vacations to military families who are suffering from the wounds of war.
Through this program, Freedom Alliance helps military couples repair and renew their marriages. We help fathers reunite with their children and build stronger bonds. We show our appreciation for the times that combat deployments separated husbands from their wives and children from their parents.
Families and couples have the opportunity to connect on a retreat specially tailored to meet their needs.
Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch (Stewartville, MN)
The marriage retreat at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch is a time for husbands and wives to have time together to focus on their marriage with a balance of faith-based marriage teachings and rest and relaxation. Some time is spent also enjoying community with other military couples who understand the stress of family military life. A nice candlelight meal is served on Saturday night.
Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage
Why a “laughter” approach? For one simple reason: to overcome the male objection to a seminar. Let’s be honest, a marriage seminar isn’t the first thing a guy thinks of when he thinks of “a fun way to spend the weekend.” We get that… Familiar with the fact that women are usually much more open to discussing marital problems than their spouses, Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage is designed with an element of humor that appeals to couples, but is especially well-received by men. By making our event fun and non-threatening, more men are open to attending and both husband and wife end up having a fantastic time. However, while this event is fun, it is anything but light and ineffective. Mark’s great content and unique approach to troubled marriages has yielded one of the highest success rates in the country.
Unlike many traditional marriage seminars that tend to be overly serious, technical and emotionally taxing, the Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage seminar is different because it helps couples deal with tough issues in a way that is fun and non-threatening. Through the two-day seminar, couples will laugh, learn and be able to make real positive changes to their marriage.
CLICK HERE to find an event near you.
Live the Life - Military Life Program (Florida)
After working in the marriage and family space for more than 21 years, we believe a holistic approach is needed to address the enormous pressures placed upon our military warriors and their families. Those pressures include the burden of a high operations tempo, unique stressors created by extended periods of separation, and an ever-evolving societal landscape.
Multiple studies indicate strong families--those characterized by love, support and healthy interaction--promote overall well-being and undergird military resilience. When America’s warriors and their families are strong, everyone benefits, and the military has members who perform at an optimal level even in the face of prolonged adversity. Conversely, when the family is weak and things are chaotic at home, then resilience is affected negatively and overall combat effectiveness is greatly diminished.
The primary goal of Live the Life’s Military Life Program is to provide targeted resiliency events to the U.S. military in order to help preserve the health and well-being of military warriors and their families. To this end, we seek to preserve military families, help reduce the stress of separation, help enhance communication between spouses, decrease loneliness, decrease suicides, develop healthy relationship skills among all family members, and foster teamwork.
Lone Survivor Foundation (Texas and North Carolina)
Couples’ PTG Program - After you attend an Individual program & complete your follow-up work, you may qualify for a Couples’ Program. At this program, you and your significant other will receive strategies and tools designed to help you communicate more effectively. The couples’ program will help you build a deeper connection allowing you to better support each other on your post-traumatic growth journey. Your significant other will have the opportunity to learn strategies and tools to help reduce Caregiver Stress.
Love and Respect
In 1999, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs launched his ground breaking Love and Respect ministry. Through his teaching, Dr. Eggerichs and his wife Sarah reveal that love and respect plays a role in every relationship. Happiness and success in marriage are not based on love alone. Many husbands feel they are not receiving the respect they need, and wives feel they are unloved. Too often, good willed couples get caught in what he calls The Crazy Cycle....
"Wives don't feel love from their husbands so they react with disrespect, husbands feel disrespected and respond in unloving ways..."
Eggerichs helps couples restore their marriages by teaching wives how to recieve love by showing their husbands respect and showing husbands how to gain respect by giving their wives love.
During this two day live event, Dr. Eggerichs and his wife Sarah help explain three basic principles:
- The Crazy Cycle: Why two couples negatively react to one another.
- The Energizing Cycle: Why two couples negatively react to one another.
- The Rewarded Cycle: What a person can do if personal expectations are unmet by a spouse.
The Eggerichs speak all over the country. CLICK HERE to see if they are coming to a city near you!
Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs
Mighty Oaks Foundation is committed to serving the brokenhearted by providing intensive peer-based discipleship through a series of programs, outpost meetings, and speaking events. Our Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs host such programs as Fight Club and Marriage Advance Programs and take place at multiple locations from four to seven days. The Warriors who attend are fully sponsored with travel arrangements, meals, and lodging needs to ensure that upon arrival to the ranch, each Warrior is focused solely on his recovery and identifying purpose moving forward.
MARRIAGE ADVANCE: LOVE NEVER GIVES UP - To be eligible to attend this program at least one from the couple must have successfully completed either the Men’s or Women’s Legacy Program first. Mighty Oaks Warrior Programs will sponsor couples attending by covering the entire programs cost along with lodging during the scheduled dates of the session. We have partnered with Family Life (A Cru Ministry) in an effort to help couples grow and strengthen their marriages, to last their lifetime, after one or both have attended a Legacy Program. Family Life offers a unique program called Weekend to Remember. With a motto of Great Marriages Don’t Just Happen, couples are invited to attend so they can invest in one another strengthening their marriage and home by understanding God’s blueprint for marriage. The Weekend to Remember offers multiple sessions at 95 locations with select sessions geared toward a military family. The couple attending would only be responsible for their own travel to and from the location and meals. Please let us know your preferred location in the notes box when filling out our application.
Operation Heal Our Patriots (Alaska)
Operation Heal Our Patriots, a ministry project of Samaritan’s Purse, focuses on bringing spiritual refreshment, physical renewal, and marriage enrichment to wounded and injured U.S. military service members and their spouses. To thank these brave men and women for their service and sacrifice, we offer programs uniquely developed to strengthen the marriage relationship and build hope for the future through the transforming power of God’s Word.
Samaritan Lodge Alaska stands peacefully within the great wilderness of America’s last frontier. It is here, among mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and wildlife that we minister to the needs of America’s own victims of war. Military service members and their spouses have the opportunity to stay for one week, including travel time.
Each day, our on-site staff chaplain leads devotions and our Marriage Resiliency Workshop. This weeklong course offers couples time away from daily pressures and distractions to study the primary dynamics that have the greatest impact on a marriage. The workshop concludes with a worship service, which affirms and celebrates couples’ relationship with God and one another, amid the marvels of His creation.
Operation Welcome Home (Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch)
(Stewartville, MN)
The marriage retreat for military couples is a time for husbands and wives to have time together to focus on their marriage with a balance of faith-based marriage teachings and rest and relaxation. Some time is spent also enjoying community with other military couples who understand the stress of family military life. A nice candlelight meal is served on Saturday night.
Oxygen for Your Relationship Program (Stronger Families)
The Oxygen Seminar is designed to help couples strengthen their relationship and work on tough issues in a way that is fun and non-threatening. Couples learn how to improve their communication, better understand each other’s needs, resolve conflict, rekindle romance, and find renewed hope.
Our seminars are fun, interactive, and practical – you will walk away with skills that you can use right away. Our commitment is to drive oxygen into your relationships through 3 key principles and provide the tools, steps, and resources to reach these goals:
- Create and implement an ACTION PLAN for your relationships.
- Design a SUPPORT SYSTEM to build on your successes and get you through the tough times.
- Learn how to PAY FORWARD what you have learned to help others.
CLICK HERE to learn more about Oxygen Seminar events that you can participate in.
Project New Hope
Project New Hope exists to provide veteran family retreats, including the whole family (even the kids!), which is unique to Project New Hope and fosters family togetherness through a wilderness getaway.
It is our goal to provide combat veterans and their families with the education, training, and skills necessary to manage their lives after wartime service; repair of relationships is a primary goal. And of course, have fun in the process!
NO COST TO PARTICIPANTS. That's right. There is no cost to the families on the retreat.
Project Sanctuary (Nationwide)
Project Sanctuary hosts therapeutic retreats in eight states across the country that are staffed and designed by the Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialists (CTRS) and the licensed counselors and social workers on Project Sanctuary’s staff. Retreats are open to active duty service members and veterans of all branches of the military and all eras.
CLICK HERE for a retreat listing.
Strong Bonds for Couples (Army)
Whether you’ve celebrated one anniversary or 20, as an Army couple you can anticipate more excitement - and expect more challenges - than the average civilian couple. Long separations, frequent relocations, and the stress of deployment can subject Army marriages to extreme hardship.
That’s why we developed the Strong Bonds Couples program. It’s our way of saying thank you for the sacrifices you and your family make every day as members of the world’s premier fighting force. And, because we understand the stresses of military life, we want to serve you through an off-post, Strong Bonds weekend retreat. You and others from your unit will gain skills that fortify your marriage, and enjoy a time of relaxation, recreation, fellowship, and fun.
Strong Bonds programs are offered by Army Chaplains with the full support of your Commanding Officer. You’ll gain practical, useful information based on world-class curriculum developed from years of research. In small groups, you’ll participate in activities that renew bonds with your peers. And, as a couple, you’ll practice communication and relationship-building skills, as well as share intimate moments.
The Strong Bonds Couples weekend retreat is designed to strengthen relationships, inspire hope and rekindle marriages - even start the journey of healing for relationships under fire.
CLICK HERE for a listing of Strong Bonds events.
Taya and Chris Kyle Foundation
Military and first responder careers ask a lot of couples. Our four-step program teaches skills to strengthen your unique partnership.
- Date night out
- Strength training
- Empowered Spouses Retreat
- Mastering your marriage
The Marriage You've Always Wanted Conference - Dr. Gary Chapman
Led by Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the best-selling Five Love Languages, this conference is not a dry, formal, marriage seminar—it’s a time of fun and discovery that can help you build the love relationship of your dreams. Whether you’re getting married in six months—or have been married 60 years—you’ll get solutions you can use. With biblical advice and a healthy dose of laughter, Dr. Chapman gives valuable tips on breaking unhealthy patterns and choosing to develop a God-honoring, happy marriage.
Couples both married and engaged will benefit from practical sessions addressing topics like communication differences, dealing with criticism, understanding love languages, and making sex mutually fulfilling. Join us for a day that will be a highlight for your marriage.
CLICK HERE to find a 5 Love Languages event near you.
VA PAIRS Classes: From Warriors to Soul Mates
The mission of PAIRS is to teach those attitudes, emotional understandings and behaviors that nurture and sustain healthy relationships and to make this knowledge broadly available on behalf of a safer, saner, more loving world.
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