Marriage help in Phoenix and the East Valley
If your marriage is cold, or hostile, or already living in separate houses, you are not the first couple to arrive here. Tens of thousands have walked this road and found their way back. There is still a way through.
78%
Does it work
of couples who participated in Retrouvaille are still married five years later.
From a five year follow up survey of participating couples. Many of them arrived separated, and some arrived with papers already filed.
Start here
Late at night, on your phone, hoping nobody walks in. That is how most couples find us.
Maybe you have stopped talking about anything that matters. Maybe every conversation turns into the same fight. Maybe one of you has already moved out, or seen a lawyer, or said the word divorce out loud. Maybe there has been a betrayal, and you cannot picture ever trusting again.
Retrouvaille (pronounced re-tro-vi, French for rediscovery) is for exactly that marriage. Not the good marriage that wants to get better. The one that is failing.
We are not counselors. We are couples whose own marriages nearly ended, and did not. We were taught a way to talk to each other that finally worked, and we spend our weekends teaching it to couples like you.
The program
Retrouvaille is not a weekend retreat you attend and then go home to the same silence. It is a complete program that starts on a Friday night and keeps going for months.
Phase One
Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. Three couples and a priest share their own marriage stories honestly, including the parts nobody tells at church. After each talk, the two of you go somewhere private and write, then read what the other wrote. You never share your business with the room.
Friday night to Sunday afternoon
Phase Two
The weekend opens the door. These sessions are how you walk through it. Six to twelve evening sessions over roughly three months, going deeper into forgiveness, trust, intimacy, conflict, and the daily habit of dialogue that keeps a marriage honest.
About 3 months, evenings
Phase Three
Monthly gatherings of couples who have been through the program. Marriage is not fixed in a weekend and held forever by willpower. CORE is where the work stays alive, and where you meet the people who understand exactly what your year has been like.
Monthly, ongoing, optional
Does it work
Retrouvaille has run since 1977 and now serves more than 100 communities worldwide. A five year follow up survey of participating couples found that 78 percent were still married. Those were not couples with minor complaints. Many arrived separated, and some arrived with papers already filed.
Stories of hope
I went because she asked me to, and I planned to sit in the back and wait for it to be over. By Saturday afternoon I was writing things I had never told anybody. We drove home talking. We had not done that in four years.
Husband, Mesa
We were living in two houses and our attorneys were already talking. I honestly went so I could tell myself I had tried everything. That was three years ago. We are in the same house now, and the marriage we have is better than the one I was trying to leave.
Wife, Gilbert
Nobody made us stand up and confess anything. That was my worst fear walking in. They talked about their own marriages, and then they left us alone to talk about ours. That is the whole thing, and it changed everything.
Husband, Chandler
After the affair I did not think there was anything left to save. I did not forgive him on that weekend. What I got was a way to say the truth out loud without it turning into a war. Forgiveness came later, and it came because of that.
Wife, Phoenix
We are not Catholic. I braced for a sales pitch that never came. They were respectful of where we stood the entire weekend, and the tools they gave us have nothing to do with what church you attend.
Couple, Queen Creek
Before you talk yourself out of it
Most of the time, one of you wants to go and the other is going along at best. That is normal here. Plenty of husbands and wives arrive angry about being there. The weekend is built for that, and reluctant spouses often turn out to be the ones it reaches hardest.
Separated couples come. Divorced couples come. Couples come with a court date on the calendar. The program was designed for marriages in serious trouble, not for tune ups. If you are still asking whether it is too late, it is worth one phone call to find out.
You will not. There is no sharing circle, no group session, no going around the room. The presenting couples do the talking. Everything you write and say stays between the two of you. Confidentiality is absolute, in both directions.
There is a modest registration fee, and the rest of the program runs on donations from couples who have been helped. Financial assistance is available and it is confidential. No couple has ever been turned away from a Phoenix weekend because of money. Ask us.
Where we serve
Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Ahwatukee, Apache Junction, Glendale, Peoria and Surprise. Weekend locations sit within the Phoenix metro area, and couples regularly drive in from Tucson, Prescott and Flagstaff when the timing is right.
Talk to a real person
Call the number below and you will reach a couple who volunteered for this because someone once picked up the phone for them. Nothing you say goes any further.
602-254-6723