Have you ever used “Google Translate?” It’s that cool app that will translate from one language to another in real time. With the help of a smartphone, two people from different continents or cultures can understand each other.

How amazing is that? What will they come up with next, right?

But, I heard someone quip the other day, “Forget Google Translate; I need an app for my relationship. I need an app to help me understand what my wife is saying. Sometimes, she may was well be speaking a foreign language. I can’t make sense of her. I need help translating. Can Google Translate do that?”

Boy, I wish it could!
A tablet with the Google logo on it. Do you feel like your relationship needs Google Translate? Reconnect with your partner and supplement your current couples therapy with intimacy workshops and couples retreats in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Beyond.

Sometimes it Feels Like You are Speaking a Different Language Than Your Partner!

If you’re in a committed relationship, I’ll bet you’ve been there.


Sometimes, it feels like you are speaking one language and your partner is speaking another, especially when you don’t see eye to eye. Conflict has a way of spinning up so fast, almost out of the blue. A facial expression, a gesture or a tone of voice can send messages you never knew and didn’t intend.


What you say can get lost in how you say it. You want to reach to your partner in love, but it gets garbled in anger or indifference. And you feel miles apart from the one you want to feel closest to.


In the heat of conflict, it’s like you’re talking different languages. It’s confusing and discouraging when conversation turns to confrontation. In a matter of seconds, it’s combat or Cold War and you just don’t understand.


And somehow, try as you might, it keeps happening. You can’t seem to get out of your own way. What you wouldn’t give to understand and be understood.


A couple argues as they struggle to communicate effectively. In couples therapy and still having issues? Boost your marriage therapy with a Couples Retreat in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Beyond.

Make Sense of the Conflict

Google Translate may not help here, but something else can.


Hold Me Tight®️ is like Google Translate for your love!


A Hold Me Tight®️ couples weekend workshop can clear up the confusion and help you finally understand one another.


Hold Me Tight®️ workshops are based in attachment science, years of research and results that help us make sense of what often makes no sense in love. Why do you react the way you do when your partner criticizes or ignores or disappoints you? Why do you get angry or shut down? Why does your partner push back or pull away? Why do we get into these vicious, seemingly endless cycles with our partner, the one we love most?


Believe it or not, those questions have answers. Hold Me Tight®️ will show you that love is not a hopeless mystery. In fact, it makes exquisite sense.

 

Learn to Speak a New Language in a Couples Retreat

Once your relationship begins to make sense, you can respond and relate to your partner differently. Your conversations will change. When you better understand what you want and need, and what your partner wants and needs, you can send clear messages; and you can understand them from your partner. You’ll be talking the same language!



Some couples who’ve been in therapy for years find that, in just two days together, they begin to decipher what had them hopelessly stuck. Conversations you’ve avoided, that you never knew you could have, become safe when you learn the language of love.

A couple holds hands with new found commitment to each other after attending a Couples Retreat in Florida. Hold Me Tight® workshops are available in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and beyond! Let our couples retreat bolster your couples therapy.

Learn the Language of Love at a Hold Me Tight®️ Couples Workshop in Florida

If your relationship seems like the two of you are speaking different languages, it isn’t a smartphone and Google Translate that you need. It’s a smart relationship and Hold Me Tight®️. Join thousands of other couples the world over who have learned to speak the same language. Hold Me Tight®️ workshops are a low key, fun and safe way to become the couple you want to be. Get started today learning the language of love!

Bolster Your Couples Therapy Today with a Hold Me Tight® Couples Retreat in Florida

Are you a couple that is attending therapy but still feel that something is missing? Do you there is more you could be doing to improve your relationship on a fundamental level? Are you ready to take the next step? If any of these sound like where you are at in your life, you are not alone. Hold Me Tight® Couples Workshops, offered by Vicki and Mark, offer a safe place to reconnect and learn how to grow in your relationship as the perfect accompaniment to your couples therapy. This workshop will leave you equipped to continue enriching your relationship long after the weekend is over. Follow the steps below to get started on your empowering journey.


  • Get to know more about Vicki and Mark here.
  • Fill out our convenient online contact form.
  • Prepare for a powerful life changing experience!


A happy couple celebrates the completion of a Couples Retreat in Orlando, FL. Couples Retreats are offered to couples in Florida and throughout the United States.

Have a Safety Plan

The "Other Side" of the Coin

By Mark Beck • July 17, 2025
In my last blog post, we said that the most vital skill for any strong relationship is empathy. (If you haven’t seen that blog, check out “The One Skill Your Relationship Can’t Do Without”.) Empathy is vital in love. But, empathy is not the only important skill. That hit record has a flip side. What is it? It’s vulnerability. Close connection in love demands vulnerability, almost by definition. Vulnerability: the willingness to open up, to show and share the deep stuff: wishes, needs, fears, uncertainties, insecurities, the things about us that we often prefer to hide. In any healthy relationship, vulnerability and empathy go hand in hand. Each makes the other possible. Without them, couples live at arm’s length, “hiding in plain sight,” like intimate strangers. They might be together…might even be married, but they aren’t close. Maybe you know this all too well. Maybe you live it everyday.

The One Skill Your Relationship Can't Do Without

By Mark Beck • July 14, 2025
Lots of things make for a healthy relationship: affirmation, trust, sacrifice, forgiveness, commitment. But, maybe the most important skill, the one no healthy relationship can do without…is empathy. Empathy is the ability to recognize and convey not only your emotions, but your partner’s emotions as well. Humans are bonding mammals and emotions are how we bond. Emotional connection is the lifeblood of any relationship. Your partner needs to know that you “get them,” that you understand their world, that you support and believe in them, that you are there for them. Empathy gets all that across.

Maintenance is Key

By Mark Beck • July 7, 2025
My wife and I bought a car recently. Not a new car, just new to us. We spent a small fortune on it and I’m determined to take good care of it. I vacuum it religiously. I check the fluids, tire pressure, mileage. I keep it clean, inside and out. I wash it at least once a week and am careful not to track a lot of dirt inside it. I’ve watched You Tube videos on simple maintenance such as oil changes, tire rotation and so forth. I’m no master mechanic, but I like to do the little things any shade tree mechanic might. We keep it out of direct sun when we can and drive as carefully as possible.

Trust is Key

By Mark Beck • June 25, 2025
I had a strange experience recently. I was out of town (in Texas, actually) and absentmindedly left my phone in a WalMart restroom (big mistake, but I know I’m not the first). I realized what I’d done less than 20 minutes later and headed back for my phone. Too late…it was gone. Now, if you found a lost cell phone, what would you do? You’d probably try to contact the owner or at least leave it with someone responsible. You’d make a good faith effort. Most people would. But, not all. With my wife’s phone, I called my number and, sure enough, someone answered. He indeed had picked up my phone. I was relieved…for a second. Then, the guy told me he’d happily return the phone to me…for $200, via Cash App. I don’t know who was dumber: me for leaving my phone behind or him for thinking I’d give him a dime to get it back. We both knew one thing: whether I paid him or not, I’d never see that phone again. It was a sad lesson in broken trust as my faith in humanity slipped a few notches. Chalk one up for the school of hard knocks.

Change Your Viewing

By Mark Beck • May 29, 2025
What is the first step to changing our station in life, changing a situation or a relationship? I suggest it starts with changing how we view things, how we look at the problem or the person. Do we see burden or a blessing…obligation or opportunity? Often, when we’re stuck, say, in a difficult relationship, we see our partner as an opponent. He or she is the problem. We may even go find a therapist whom we hope will “fix” our partner. We focus on the other’s weakness, faults and failures, how they let us down and miss the mark. If that is your focus, then the more you look, the more you will see. Most couples who come to me for therapy are so focused on their partner’s problems that they can’t see anything else. They are often stuck in blame and negativity. And what we see informs what we believe. If we see only the bad in our partner, it’s easy to believe that he or she doesn’t love us or that the relationship is hopeless. That’s when couples don’t call me; they call lawyers.

We All Need Predictability

By Mark Beck • April 25, 2025
If you are invested in the stock market, it’s been a roller coaster lately. Indeed, perhaps the best short run strategy is to close your eyes and hold on and ride it out—just like on a roller coaster! However you view the market moves we’re seeing—tariffs and the like—one thing is pretty clear: markets don’t like unpredictability. Uncertainty makes markets very nervous. Hence, lots of ups and downs make for tension and trouble. It’s human nature; unpredictability is stressful in any context.

Safety First

By Mark Beck • April 1, 2025
A local factory required all of its employees to attend a safety class. One fellow didn’t really pay attention and when the final exam at the end of the class asked, “In case of a fire, what steps would you take?” the fellow answered, “Large ones!” “Safety First” is a wise strategy, everywhere from the workplace to the highway to healthcare to childcare. Injuries and accidents cost multiplied billions every year and it’s always better to prevent an accident than to treat one. Whatever the setting, people do better when they feel safe.

Curious or Critical

By Mark Beck • March 14, 2025
Somebody said, “Marriage is a never ending conversation.” I think that’s true. It certainly is a never ending education. That’s part of what makes it fun. Everyday I learn something about my wife, Debbie, about how she sees the world and sees me. And I’m often surprised at our different perspectives. We were on the verge of an argument the other day, simply because we both saw the situation very differently. Neither of us were wrong. But, once I realized how Debbie saw things, I understood her actions and reactions much better. And I realized again that a real key to connection lies in understanding, more than being understood. The late Sue Johnson used to say, “People calm down when they feel understood.” I’ve certainly found that to be true.

Love Is a Team Sport

By Mark Beck • January 29, 2025
If you’re a sports fan (specifically, football) this is your favorite time of year. The NFL playoffs showcase the best of the best and even for the non-fanatics out there, some important truths are evident. Football, like many other sports, is a team game. For sure, individual superstars shine, but only because those around them pull together for a common goal. The best teams operate as one. Eleven players, all on the same page: focused, supportive, picking each other up, pursuing the same goal. When they do, they become more than the sum of their parts…highly efficient. They minimize mistakes and overcome them when they happen. When adversity hits, lesser teams slip into fault finding, sniping and looking out for number one. In any sport, if teammates ever become opponents, they can’t win. It’s game over.

Relationship Rescue

By Mark Beck • January 24, 2025
You might remember the cruise ship Costa Concordia that foundered off the coast of Italy in 2012 after her captain carelessly steered her too close to shore. Rocks tore a 175 foot gash in her hull and the ship listed severely to her starboard side, taking on water and running aground. Ultimately, 32 people died and the recovery cost about $2 billion. Perhaps the greatest blunder though, was that the captain waited over an hour to give the order to abandon ship. For such negligence, he was ultimately convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years. Indeed, he left the ship with 300 passengers still on board! (He said he “fell” into a lifeboat as it was being lowered.)
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