Life Support 
- A Couples Retreat for Medical Professionals and their Spouses or Life Partners

with Albert Bellg Ph.D. and Laurin Bellg MD
at Monte Alverno Retreat Center, 1000 N. Ballard Rd., Appleton

Saturday, May 18, 2013
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

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$185 per couple
(registration limited - please register soon)
Long nights and weekends on call.  Working on holidays, and Thanksgiving dinner scheduled at 6:00 p.m. so you can be there.  Missing your kids' soccer games.  Scheduling birthday parties not on birthdays, but on days you're not working.  And a hundred other ways your personal life is different because you're a medical professional. 

But what about your spouse or life partner?  His or her life is different, too - and often in ways that may be just as difficult.  Finding time to pursue their own career.  Offering a patient, compassionate ear when you need to unwind about your day.  Doing the things you don't have time for, like scheduling and organizing family holidays and vacations.  Perhaps doing the majority of child care.  Walking the dog.  And a hundred other kinds of support you may be only dimly aware of.  

With all its stresses and strains, it's amazing that relationships and marriages in the medical world survive.  But they do - and often they are all the more meaningful and rewarding for the dedication and commitment of both partners to making their lives, their careers, and their relationship successful.  

Life Support: A Couples Retreat for Medical Professionals and their Spouses or Life Partners  is about celebrating the strengths and positive elements of relationships in the medical world, as well as developing better ways of handling the particular challenges and stress of maintaining a loving relationship.  We will explore what we appreciate about our relationship and some of the challenges we face, and learn mindful and compassionate ways to take better care of ourselves and our life partner.  

The retreat will include group interaction and discussion, guided meditation, poetry and music, journaling, and time for exploration and reflection with your partner at a peaceful retreat center on the Fox River.  This one-day retreat is not couples therapy, though - the retreat will not focus on helping couples deal with emotionally difficult personal and relationship issues. What it will do, however, is help you reconnect with what is good about your relationship, and perhaps discover ways to make it better. 

Both your attendence and what you choose to say will be confidential, and we will follow guidelines that respect each other’s experience. No one is required to share personal information or stories, and we refrain from fixing, advising, or correcting each other. We want this to be a time for exploration, renewal and life support - and we’ll have some fun as well!

Who, where and when

Albert Bellg, Ph.D. and Laurin Bellg, MD have been working on what it is to be a couple dealing with the satisfactions and stresses of working in the medical community for nearly 12 years.  We are pleased to explore with you and your life partner during this retreat what it is to support each other both as a spouse and as a professional.  You also will discover some practical ways for dealing with individual and relationship stress in a mindful and compassionate way. 

Life Support will take place at the beautiful Monte Alverno Retreat Center along the Fox River in Appleton.  Please note that even though it is being held at a Catholic retreat center, this retreat is not based in a religious tradition and is open to those with all beliefs. 

Registration is at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, and the retreat will begin at 9:00 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m.  The price of $185 per couple includes lunch, fruit, snacks and very good coffee and tea throughout the day.

The total number of couples is limited, so please register soon for this event.  You can do that by emailing abellg@att.net with your name, address and phone number, or by calling 920-996-0887. You can pay by credit card, PayPal, or personal check.  

If you need to cancel your registration before May 11, we will refund all your registration fee (less a credit card or PayPal fee, if there was one).  After that date,we will retain $50 of the fee, which we will gladly apply to your registration for another LifePath workshop or retreat.