Military Marriage
Resiliency Retreats
The Retreat
The couple and family retreats are for active-duty service members and their families and are held in beautiful and luxurious environments that will help create new memories, friendships and experiences with your spouse or family. The goal is to help families reunite after a deployment and prevent future relationship breakdown. Plus, you will learn new tools to help you become more effective in three areas: critical understanding, conflict management, and proper maintenance.
This is an all-expense paid weekend
because of the generosity of independent donors who value your service to our county.
because of the generosity of independent donors who value your service to our county.
Who can attend?
M2R2 serves the Marines and Sailors of 1st Marine Division (Camp Pendleton). An invitation from your Unit Command or Chaplain is required. Each retreat is meant for a specific unit with a maximum of 10 couples or families in attendance.
This is a weekend where you can disconnect from the hustle of normal life to recharge, to focus, to learn and re-learn how to invest into a relationship and communicate better, whether you are a newlywed or married for 15 years. Everyone can learn something from this weekend.
Col. Craig Ullman
What to expect
When you come to one of our retreats you can expect that there is a significant amount of free time for you and your spouse to reconnect. There will be a few periods of instruction that can be helpful in you establishing good habits for a marriage.
We seek to improve the level of resilience in the marriage by giving you tools that will help you be more effective in three areas: critical understandings (good Intel), conflict management tools, and proper maintenance. All these things are familiar tools in the world you are in. We want to help you apply these tools to healthy marriages and family.
Retreat Locations
Many of the retreats take place at different venues but rest assured they are places that
enhance and facilitate connection.
When you sign up for a retreat you will receive the venue information that you will be
attending and you’ll be able to get more detailed information.
Couples Retreats
Couples Retreats
Family Retreats
The Struggle
The struggle is how to make your marriage and family more resilient to the demands of the military life because it is not a normal one. Service members and families experience a variety of stresses that exceed their civilian counterparts, which can result in injury to their relationship, and even to the service member giving up on life.
49% of military suicides are the direct result of failed/distressed relationships.
60% of military marriages fail after leaving the military.
You cannot expect a marriage to operate well under stress unless the married couple has been trained to do so. With the proper training marriages can thrive in the military environment.
Dylan Bender, M2R2 Facilitator, USMC, LFMT
Our Vision
Help build resilience in service-member’s relationships, along with their families. We are an action-based organization helping military couples and their families navigate the potential difficulties of the military life.
Our Mission
Offer couple and family retreats in a stress free and comfortable environment that is conducive to rebuilding relationships by helping them to:
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Reconnect after long periods of separation due to deployment |
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Restore the emotional connection strained by military life |
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Revive relationships with pragmatic techniques to withstand the future stressors of military life |
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De-stigmatize counseling for couples who need more help |
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Provide ongoing skill-based training specific to the military culture |
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Normalize the stresses of marriage in the military, and to dispel fears of failure |
Meet Dylan
I have served like many of you. I have a full appreciation of the hardship that military life can have on a relationship. The military culture is a very different culture with different expectations placed on marital relationships than when you’re a civilian.
Because I have served and have spent 11 years counseling veterans and active-duty personnel, I have the tools, skills, and can translate them into the military culture.
I have chosen this career path because I have seen too many military marriages crumble under the weight of the burden of military life, and it is my personal mission to help strengthen them to thrive in this environment.
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