Cameron Preece, Ph.D., LMFT

Hi there!  

Misty & I are excited about the LDS centered approach to strengthening marriage workshop we are hosting this coming Friday & Saturday!  There are a few spots left.  If you are interested...come join us!  It will be fun, engaging, and informative with a little romance sprinkled in.  If you know someone who might be interested, please share this with them or have them check out our website or call Wind Rivers Counseling at (208) 620-5399 for more information.

Thanks!

www.windriverscounseling.com

Hi there!

Misty & I are excited about the LDS centered approach to strengthening marriage workshop we are hosting this coming Friday & Saturday! There are a few spots left. If you are interested...come join us! It will be fun, engaging, and informative with a little romance sprinkled in. If you know someone who might be interested, please share this with them or have them check out our website or call Wind Rivers Counseling at (208) 620-5399 for more information.

Thanks!

www.windriverscounseling.com

We are gearing up and excited for our Dating, Daring, & Discipleship workshop coming up soon! Can’t wait to see familiar faces and meet new ones during this great weekend. Four spots left, so go grab yours on our website (maybe even inviting friends of yours to join you 🙌). Link in bio!

Learning this one skill may save your marriage!

My wife, Misty, has this secret weapon…if we have been struggling or have hurt feelings that we have been unable to resolve, she may come up behind me while I am sitting in my favorite recliner and lovingly put her arms around my neck and say, “Cam, I’m sorry that there are negative feelings between us…I was overly sensitive and reacted poorly…I’m sorry….I want to be close the rest of the evening.” Boom!...I just can’t resist this.

John Gottman, renowned couples researcher, calls this effort by Misty a “repair attempt”. He says, “repair attempts are the secret weapon of emotionally intelligent couples….“they are any statement or action — silly or otherwise — that prevents negativity from escalating out of control.”

There is nothing quite so powerful to persuade me to get out of my spiraling negative feelings and back to connection than when Misty does this! And, I am much more likely to respond to this compelling repair attempt by acknowledging my own defensiveness and I in turn apologize to her.

Our goal is to get from hurt back to connection in a maximum of 20 min…that’s the goal. Try it…this skill just might save your marriage!

Hint: this is so much harder than it sounds!

I'm often inspired by the power for good that partners in marriage have to rescue, heal and uplift one another.

Compliments or expressions of appreciation are nice….and....when you anchor them in your partner’s character, then that compliment becomes powerful, motivating, and inspires the very best of them to show up! Let me illustrate. Recently, I was working on a professional project that required me to really hunker down and stretch and be vulnerable. I found myself becoming discouraged and I couldn’t maintain my energy and passion for what I was trying to create. My wife, Misty (who I am crazy in love with by the way!), notices the struggle bus has taken me for a ride and out of her compassion and knowing of me sent me this quote with a simple little note:

"Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners — I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous I don't know.

I loved this quote and it made me think of you!"

Well, you can imagine what happened to my temporary discouragement when the person I love the most sees me in this light! I was immediately up and out of the cloud of discouragement and back into my passion about my project.

Go ahead and try it! Rather than just say “thank you” or “I appreciate it when you did this….”, try to anchor it in a character trait you really cherish about your spouse and then watch what happens!

A common question that often pops up in my office is about compatibility or "did I marry the right person?" This is certainly a fair and compelling question!😊 My experience after working with 100's of couples is that happy/healthy marriages are much less about finding the right person or waiting until until one's "soul mate" appears on the horizon, and much more about being the right kind of person. The attached quote really nails it!

Marriage workshop/retreat coming April 14-15; April 28-29, 2023

Dating, Daring & Discipleship....a LDS centered approach for strengthening your marriage.

What's included: 15 + hours of active instruction, including activities, readings, dating experiences, fun, food & lodging for two nights at the hotel. All reading materials and experiences are included in the cost of the workshop.