Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Will it be an evening to celebrate your enduring love and friendship, or a last-ditch chance for “damage control”? Maybe this is the year you decide as a couple to take your relationship to the next level. It’s never too early or late in a relationship to learn how to better communicate your feelings, needs and goals.
SMART Couples is a great place to start.
SMART Couples is a UF/IFAS Extension program under the direction of Dr. Victor Harris in the University of Florida’s Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences. It uses psychology, sociology, and communications science to strengthen families and relationships. It works regardless of whether you’re married, engaged, dating, divorced, parenting, remarried or “it’s complicated”.
On February 18, the SMART Couples team will be presenting a special online event on The Art of Effective Communication. Marriage and relationship specialists from around the country will be presenting workshops on how to learn more about your partner, elevate your relationship, communicate better and resolve conflicts. Tickets for the event are available here.
Regardless of what kind of relationship you’re in or how long you’ve been in it, this is a date night that can change your lives together.
The UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore has many resources that support SMART Couples education programs.
Victor William Harris
10 Secrets for Nurturing Your Marital Friendship
Is your spouse also a best friend? Marriage Tip and Traps by Dr. Victor Harris is based on the principles of United Marriage Enhancement Training (UMET) and stresses the ideal of marital friendship. Learn crucial skills that will contribute to a successful, fulfilling partnership with your spouse.
228 pp.
$33.50
Before You Tie the Knot is a UF/IFAS SMART Couples educational program that offers constructive guidance to couples as they begin married life together. Consisting of six workshops on communication, parenting, money management and healthy lifestyles, it’s designed to help couples work together as partners to make their marriages successful.
Available on CD or flash drive, this contains all the materials an instructor needs to conduct a SMART Couples course in Before You Tie the Knot:
- PowerPoint presentation of all workshops
- Lecture notes
- Printable workbook
- Evaluations
- Tracking charts
- Quizzes
- Printable brochures & pamphlets
$15.00
Before You Tie the Knot Workbook
43 pp.
$10.00
9 Important Communication Skills for Every Relationship
This is a SMART Couples course that teaches teens, couples, parents, families and even coworkers how they can learn simple skills to break the negative cycles that may be disrupting their relationships and overall happiness.
Subjects include:
- The 5 do’s and the 4 don’ts for communicating effectively
- How to avoid patterns of victimization and blame
- The principle of doing the right thing for the right reason
- 10 rules for successfully handling conflict
CD/Flashdrive
$15.00
Positive Behavioral Management Skills for Parents & Teachers
This SMART Couples course helps parents and teachers learn the simple skills and strategies that can break the negative cycles that may be harming your parent-child and teacher-student relationships.
The three-part series teaches skills such as:
- The four types of child and student misbehaviors and how to manage them effectively
- Three keys to effective parenting and teaching
- Proven strategies to use when children behave well–and when they don’t
- How to practice the “C.O.O.L.” principle
- Five easy-to-learn steps for resolving conflict
CD/Flashdrive
$15.00
SMART Couples Pamphlets
Enhance your SMART Couples program with these helpful fold-out quick references! Bundled in a pack of 25, these pamphlets make an outstanding take-away for your class participants or a tool to cultivate interest in the program.
8 Needs of Every Partner, Parent and Child
$9.99/pack of 25
9 Important Communication Skills for Every Relationship
$9.99/pack of 25
For more, visit https://ifasbooks.ifas.ufl.edu
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