Doctor Viviana weighs in on healthy relationships during National Marriage week.
Take your pick. Whether you are looking for ideas for a date night, Valentine’s Day or a bigger solution to preserving your marriage this year, National Marriage Week USA, celebrated on February 7-14 annually, will help you find much more than a rose and a box of chocolate for your troubles.
Touting the financial, health and social benefits of marriage in a video at nationalmarriageweekusa.org, executive director of the organization Sheila Weber noted that married adults lead longer lives, have greater personal happiness, and better health. “…Marriage is really the unsung anti-poverty program because single motherhood is the greatest source of impoverishment for both women and children,” said Weber in the video.
Pointing to a recent Brookings Institution analysis, she also noted that, “if we had the marriage rate today that we had in 1970, we’d have 25 percent less poverty.” She also highlighted that in 1970, nearly 80 percent of all adults in America were married. That number is now down to 52 percent.
This year’s National Marriage Week USA campaign features nearly 1,000 events, classes and conferences nationwide geared at helping married couples keep their relationship strong. The offerings are listed in a searchable database on the campaign’s website.
Offerings include a free eight-week series of marriage help sessions facilitated by Jean Claude Lukunku of the Godspeak Church of the Revelations in the Bronx, NY.
“These sessions are really for couples whose marriages are cold and are looking to bring back the fire,” explained Lukunku in an interview with The Christian Post on Tuesday. “For those who are ready to divorce, we usually send them to professional marriage counselors,” he added.
When asked what inspired them to host the sessions sponsored by the Family Dynamics Institute, Lukunku cited concern for the current state of marriage in America. “It’s pretty much looking at the Christian couple and knowing that statistics for the Christian marriage is not much different from secular marriages,” he said. “The divorce rate for secular couples and Christian couples are also very close,” he added.
According to research cited by the movement, American taxpayers spend at least $112 billion a year on divorce and unwed childbearing. Some 40 percent of all U.S. babies today are born outside of marriage, compared to less than 5 percent in 1960. The National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting notes that 72 percent of all African American babies are born outside of marriage today.
Couples can also find the discounted services of highly trained professional like Dr. Viviana Arango Coles, lead psychotherapist at Houston Relationship Therapy in Houston, Texas. She is a doctor of marriage and family therapy, a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified sex therapist.
If you have any further questions about this topic or to schedule a session with one of our clinicians, please CONTACT US.
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