By Darren Wilk and Lawrence Stoyanowski via The Gottman Institute
Recently we were featured on the Gottman Institute Blog!
This April we’re heading down to the Gottman Institute in Seattle to present our Art + Science of Love Workshop! Read about the beginnings of Best Marriages below, and how this journey has impacted our lives, especially our marriages!
We’ve been friends and business partners since 2000, running and developing BestMarriages, one of the largest couples counseling centers in the Vancouver, Canada area.
But it hasn’t always been this way.
Before BestMarriages, we were both part of a counseling group in Vancouver called Lighthouse Therapeutic Services. After reading John Gottman’s book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Darren burst into the office one day and said, “This is the way to go.” It makes sense and, as a guy, it seems practical and not too “touchy feely.”
Lawrence read it and agreed. He had been a marriage and family therapist for 10 years and, even though he felt like he was helping couples, there was something missing. Darren was new to the game, had no idea how to help couples, and was trying every method out there without much success.
At the time, we were both getting trained as business coaches, and the big deal back then was to a) build a brand about one thing and b) you shouldn’t try to be everything for everyone. We jumped on this bandwagon and told our group that we wanted to focus on being a marriage and relationship counseling center.
Our partners disagreed. They didn’t think that couples counseling exclusively could be profitable as a business. It caused a bit of a divorce and we soon parted ways with our colleagues. BestMarriages was born.
