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.

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.

2025 Retreat Dates

Family Retreat
February 14-15
Waitlist Only
Couples Retreat
April 25-27
Register Here
Family Retreat
June 6-8
Register Here
Family Retreat
September 5-7
Register Here
Couples Retreat
December
Register Here

What do we provide?

Couple Retreats

Couples Retreats

Family Retreats

Couple Retreats

Family Retreats

Couple Retreats

Couples Retreats

Family Retreats

Couples Retreats

Family Retreats

Couples Retreats

-Food, Housing, and Seminars are provided for attendees.  
-No childcare provided at couples retreats for this is a time to focus on your marriage.
-Saturday evening is slotted as a date night for you and your spouse to reconnect.
- Attendees will have plenty of free time to rest or even practice the teachings from our seminars!

This retreat is best for transitioning couples who are seeking to receive wise marital advice from a military perspective.

Family Retreats

-Food, Housing, Seminars, and Camp Recreation are provided for attendees.
-Childcare is provided for couples during seminar sessions, so you and your spouse can have your full attention towards learning helpful skills and tools.
-Plenty of free time to roam campgrounds with your family.

This retreat is best for transitioning families who are wanting to be equipped with the right set of tools that will prepare you and your family for the transition to civilian life.

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

Testimonials

"We are getting the tools we need for our future."
"From the classes to just being here, we are so grateful!"
"For us this has been something we will never forget."
"Especially after deployment this was extremely helpful."
"We learned a lot. We're going to take it and use it!"
"We're going on to a couple of decades of marriage and we could still utilize this information."
"This is something all marines would benefit from."
"I hope thousands more come behind us and take advantage of this."
"We learned different techniques for our marriage."
"We are getting the tools we need for our future."
"From the classes to just being here, we are so grateful!"
"For us this has been something we will never forget."
"Especially after deployment this was extremely helpful!"
"We learned a lot. We're going to take it and use it!"
"We're going on to a couple of decades of marriage and we could still utilize this information."
"This is something all marines would benefit from."
"I hope thousands more come behind us and take advantage of this."
"We learned different techniques for our marriage."

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.

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
49% of military suicides are the direct result of failed/distressed relationships.
60% of military marriages fail after leaving the military.

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:

Reconnect after long periods of separation due to deployment
Restore the emotional connection strained by military life
Revive relationships with pragmatic techniques to withstand the future stressors of military life
De-stigmatize counseling for couples who need more help
Provide ongoing skill-based training specific to the military culture
Normalize the stresses of marriage in the military, and to dispel fears of failure

Our Mission

Offer couple and family retreats in a stress-free and comfortable environment that is conducive to rebuilding relationships by helping them to:

Reconnect after long periods of
separation due to deployment
Restore the emotional connection
strained by military life
Revive relationships with pragmatic
techniques to withstand the future
stressors of military life
De-stigmatize counseling for couples
who need more help
Provide ongoing skill-based training
specific to the military culture
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.

Contact Us

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