CoupleTalk® – The 21st Century Version of the Relationship Enhancement® Model

CoupleTalk® is an evidence-based marriage and relationship education curriculum that represents the latest version of the Relationship Enhancement® (RE) model, originally developed by Dr. Bernard Guerney more than 50 years ago.

RE was the first structured, skills-based approach to teach couples how to strengthen their relationship through empathy, emotional expression, and effective conflict resolution – skills that could be taught by trained laypersons, not just professionals. Later, with federal support, Mastering the Mysteries of Love (MML) was developed as a version of RE specifically tailored to the general population. MML retained RE’s core skill set, but used simplified language and accessible teaching methods.

Over more than 50 years the family of RE programs have been rigorously evaluated and found to be highly effective:

• An award-winning meta-analysis showed that RE’s effect size (measuring the beneficial impact on participants) was more than twice as large as that of the next largest of the 13 programs evaluated (Giblin et al., 1985).
• The country’s largest in-depth cross-site cross-program evaluation which was performed by Healthy Relationships California of over 8,000 participants between 2006 and 2011 demonstrated that RE’s effect size was 56% greater than the next most effective program, delivering the strongest outcomes across all key measures, including marital satisfaction, communication, and conflict resolution.

These RE programs leave lasting positive impacts – which often improve over time:

• Several longitudinal studies of RE participants demonstrate that RE interventions have a continuing positive influence, resulting in an actual increase in gains at follow-up compared to post test.
• Positive outcomes include marital adjustment and satisfaction, improved communication, empathy, and problem-solving skills, increased trust, harmony, and cooperation, and overall improved quality of the couple’s relationship.

And, these RE programs are effective even in the most challenging environments:

• “One study of 90 violent husbands – all of whom were first offenders arrested for spousal abuse – found that none of the men randomly assigned to the RE program was arrested again for the same offence in the year following treatment, compared with 20% of the untreated group” (Wade Horn, Crisis Magazine, 2003).
• RE methodology has also yielded positive outcomes with addicted spouses, premarital couples, low-income couples, couples experiencing mental health issues, in addition to parent-child, parent-adolescent, and family relationships.

Following this success, Don and Alex were asked to develop CoupleTalk to serve as the “21st Century Version” of the RE model. CoupleTalk preserves the full skill set and structure of RE and MML, while introducing innovations that make it more flexible, engaging, and even easier to implement. CoupleTalk can be delivered in group classes, retreats, individual coaching, online, or by a couple in their own home.

CoupleTalk is RE—modernized for today’s couples, without compromising the model’s proven effectiveness. For comprehensive research on the RE skills model and its impact, see our 23-page bibliography for a list of research articles.