FAQs
If you want to be loved, love -Seneca
Our Mission / Vision
Our Mission
We help couples to create healthier romantic and parental relationships.
How we do this
Through transformative retreats and couples and parent coaching.
Our Vision
We envision a day when healthier outcomes for children, couples, and families are the norm. We envision a day when people seek to acknowledge and break generational patterns. We envision a day when people relish having more open, honest, validating, and fulfilling relationships.
What is Premarital Counseling?
Premarital counseling helps couples to determine their readiness for marriage. It can take several forms: therapy with a licensed mental health practitioner, counseling with a religious leader, or coaching with a knowledgeable professional. Effective premarital coaching will assist couples in highlighting potential “pain points”, reducing conflict, and developing new skills and coping strategies to navigate the inevitable issues that will arise during the marriage.
Why Should Couples Engage in Premarital Counseling?
Premarital counseling reduces divorce by thirty-one percent. Most couples spend an extraordinary amount of time and money planning the wedding, but neglect to plan for their marriage. Premarital counseling can help you to create a roadmap for relationship success.
What services does Soul 2 Soul (S2S) offer?
S2S offers the following premarital/marital counseling services: Love Wins! LGBTQ+ Weekend Couples Retreats; the SYMBIS Assessment; Parenting 101: Weekend Retreat for LGBTQ+ Parents and private couples and parenting coaching sessions.
What is the SYMBIS Assessment?
The SYMBIS Assessment (short for Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts) provides a roadmap to a successful and happy marriage. Couples are assessed individually through an online tool. The report is unpacked in individual or group sessions with a certified SYMBIS facilitator. The SYMBIS Assessment is an insightful tool for all relationships and the webinar or individual sessions are open to all couples: engaged, newly married, married for years, long-term partners, and second marriages.
Are S2S’s services helpful for couples who are newly married, in long-term partnerships, married for years or people going into second marriages?
Yes. During the course of our lifetime, we are constantly learning and growing psychologically and emotionally. S2S’s services can be beneficial at any stage of a couple’s relationship. For example, the SYMBIS Assessment includes additional questions for couples entering their second marriage and/or blending families.
What is the Love Wins! LGBTQ+ Weekend Couples Retreat? What is included?
The Love Wins! LGBTQ+ Weekend Couples Retreat is weekend-long couples retreat that combines LGBTQ+ specific coaching with a luxurious resort experience. The retreat includes accommodations, meals, and fourteen hours of live instruction exploring the following topics: communication, a family of origin, spirituality, finances, and sex and intimacy. Couples will develop coping methods tailored to the unique issues gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender couples face. Couples also receive a specially curated “Goodie Box” filled with fun and interesting items guaranteed to spice up your relationship.
My partner and I are a little weary of the group format. How much do we have to disclose at the Love Wins! Retreats?
We are intentional about creating a safe space for conversation and exploration. The Love Wins! Retreats are intimate groups of no more than twelve couples. Many of the exercises are for you and your partner to engage in separate from the group. When we come back together as a group to discuss the exercises, you may say as little or as much as you’d like.
What makes Soul 2 Soul different from other companies that provide similar services?
As a Black and Filipino gay male, I have first-hand experience of what it is like to belong to marginalized groups. I understand the impact that being deemed “other” (due to race/ethnicity and sexual orientation) has on one’s personal development and on romantic and familial relationships. The workshops were developed with these issues in mind and include a deep dive into the possible effects of marginalization and how to create skills and coping mechanisms to enable your relationship to thrive.
Is the Love Wins! LGBTQ+ Weekend Couples Retreat only open to LGBTQ+ Couples?
Yes. There are issues that are unique to LGBTQ+ Couples, so at this time the Retreats are limited to those couples. The plan is to offer a similar Retreat to heterosexual couples in 2023. All couples are invited to attend the SYMBIS workshops, private SYMBIS coaching, private couples, and parenting sessions, and the Level Up! Vision Board/5 Year Plan workshop. Throughout the year, S2S schedules free curated film series and workshops that are open to all couples. They are largely hosted online and have been attended by a diverse group of individuals from across the United States, Canada, and other parts of the globe.
Is this therapy?
The Love Wins! LGBTQ+ Weekend Couples Retreats and SYMBIS Assessment are not couples or family therapy. Love Wins! and SYMBIS both assist couples in exploring issues that may impact your marriage, but are not therapy. The Retreats and SYMBIS Assessment workshop are lively and engaging and often include discussion on topics that many therapists shy away from. After completing either workshop, many couples often will pursue their own therapy to further explore issues raised in the Retreats and/or SYMBIS.
What if I/We need therapy after taking the SYMBIS Assessment and/or attending Love Wins?
Some couples may find that they need further exploration of the issues raised in the Retreats and/or SYMBIS Assessment. I have been training marriage and family therapists and psychologists for more than two decades and generally can connect you to a skilled therapist for further work.
I am single. What about me?
Preparing for our next relationship is forward-thinking and can reduce conflict and increase future relationship happiness. Interested singles can book individual relationship coaching and/or attend the “Level Up!” workshop, which will help them to clarify what they value before beginning their next relationship.
Singles are also welcome to join us for NYE 2023 in Rome: Italy and Greece tour.
What if I/We are unsure about we what may need?
Please feel free to schedule a half-hour consultation and I would be happy to explore the options with you.
About the logo: What does it mean?
The infinity symbol represents the immeasurable, the boundless, and the infinite. The closed-loop has no beginning and no end. It is recognized in many cultures as a symbol of love, knowledge, happiness, prosperity, serenity, and enrichment. It is associated with healing and new perspectives. It is synonymous with restoring harmony in self and in problematic relationships. It is symbolic of eternal, loving, and peaceful relationships.
Corporate Giving
We are invested in strengthening families and communities. Soul 2 Soul donates a portion of its revenue to non-profit programs that increase positive outcomes for children, prevent interfamilial abuse and encourage mentorship.
COVID-19 Guidance
Soul 2 Soul Global is committed to the safety of its guests. As health guidelines continue to evolve, we are working closely with each venue to ensure that we follow ALL state and federal health guidelines provided at the time of the event. We will be using Health Pass by CLEAR and will require all attendees to enroll in the app to help you safely enter the venue. Health documents that will be required include proof of Covid-19 vaccination or proof of negative Covid-19 test taken no more than 72 hours prior to the event. Final requirements will be communicated in the coming weeks. By purchasing a ticket, you agree to abide by the health and safety guidelines put in place by Soul 2 Soul Global and recommended by the state where the venue is located and/or the CDC at the time of the event. By participating in the Love Wins! LGBTQ+ Weekend Couples Retreat (the “Event”), you assume all risk and danger incidental to live events and release Soul 2 Soul Global, its affiliates, contractors and employees, the Event’s sponsors, host organizations, staff, event production companies, and all agents from any and all liabilities resulting from such entry. In attending the event, you agree to accept full responsibility for your own safety. By entering this Event, you acknowledge that photos and/or videos may be taken of you and used by Soul 2 Soul Global and its affiliates. You hereby waive any claims against Soul 2 Soul Global and its affiliates in connection with the use in any and all media of such photos and videos taken at this event.