FORT RUCKER, Ala. -- Marriage can bring its own unique stressors into life, but Army Community Service wants to help combat that by helping people communicate.
In a combined effort with Army Family Team Building, the family advocacy program and family resilience training, ACS will host the Newlywed and not-so-Newlywed Game Feb. 10 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Corvias Military Living in Bldg. 2908 where couples will discover their personality traits and the effects they might have on their relationship, according to Ruth Gonzalez, ACS relocation readiness program manager.
"We want to give people the tools to at least be able to recognize who they are, where they are (in their relationship) and how they react to life's challenges, because you can't fix a problem if you don't know what the problem is," she said. "This event is just a teaser -- this isn't a full-on training session. This is just to give couples a taste of program while having a little fun."
The event has space for up to 20 couples and will kick off with a complimentary dinner, and four of those couples will be chosen to participate as contestants in the game show following dinner.
"We'll start off talking about personality traits and how that affects relationships, and then we will go into active-constructive responding, which is one of the topics that is discussed during resiliency training," said Gonzalez, adding that the game show is mean to add a bit of fun while opening up communication.
Communication is one of the main goals of the program, and the event is also meant to help couples see if there is more that they might need to delve into, which is something they would be able to do with the resiliency training sessions that ACS provides, said the program manager.
"This is a form of training, but it's more about participation, and hopefully if they're interested, they can take the full class later and sign up," she said. "This will get them thinking. Do you know what your personality trait is and how that affects how you behave or are perceived by someone else?
"Once people understand what their personality trait is, they can see how their spouse perceives them and they can be more sympathetic or empathetic to why they were offended or gotten upset at the way something was said or how one behaved," she continued. "It's really common for us, especially with someone that we know well, to get really comfortable … and only focus on the negatives. Our job is to train, so whoever is interested in wanting to thrive when you have a challenge -- you're not just going to overcome the challenge, you're going to grow and be a better person.
Gonzalez said it's up to the resiliency team to provide people with those skills so that they can apply them in different situations to be able to adapt and change into what it is they hope to achieve in their relationship.
"People should ask themselves, 'Are you satisfied with that or do you want to change it?" she said. "If they want to change it then we can provide them with those skills."
Couples must register for the event by Feb. 8 and childcare will be provided. Couples requiring childcare must have their children registered with parent central services.
For those interested in taking the full-day resiliency training sessions following the game-show event, the next sessions will be March 9 and 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
For more information or to register, call 255-3735. For more information on Parent Central Services, call 255-9636.
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