Marriage Coaching: Heart, Hope and Skills for a Great Relationship (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781468000801)

Jeff Williams is a broken-hearted child of divorce who has dedicated his life to learning how to make relationships work, including his own marriage of 26 years. He is a Supervising Professional Clinical Counselor, Christian Leadership Coach and Master Coach Trainer. Jill began working professionally with Jeff in 2001 by developing the business side of their private counseling practice while Jeff focused on the counseling. Shortly thereafter (2003) they were chosen by leaders in their hometown to pioneer the development of a community marriage initiative. Since then they have developed the model of Marriage Coaching together. In "Marriage Coaching: Heart, Hope and Skills for a Great Relationship", Jeff and Jill tell the story of how Marriage Coaching helped to save their own marriage even while they were learning how to help other couples to heal, strengthen and protect their marriages. "We married young and grew up together," Jill says. "We were ignorant about how to have conflicts in a way that would build our relationship and deepen our intimacy. In 2003 we were chosen to develop a Community Marriage Initiative in Springfield, Ohio (where Jeff's family went through divorce). It was then we began to learn about concepts, skills, exercises and a process we could use to help our own marriage. We wanted God's best for us and we wanted to be proactive for our relationship so that divorce wouldn't sneak up on us." Ironically, as they began to learn how to help other couples, things only got worse in the Williams' personal and professional life. After successfully launching the Community Initiative in Ohio they made a stressful move to Washington, D.C. to do executive work for a national marriage ministry. That, combined with some heart-ache in their family nearly undid them. "We had to reach deep into the tool-box of skills we'd learned to help others in order to save ourselves. That's how Marriage Coaching was born." Today, Jeff and Jill's full-time work and passion is coaching other couples to heal, strengthen and protect their marriage, and training couples to coach other marriages. Their work takes them around the world and across the U.S. They continue to operate Grace & Truth Counseling and Coaching, and Great Relationships, a training organization. They again reside in Springfield, Ohio and have three children and one grand-daughter.