Our Story

Simple Marriage began in January 2008 as a blog aimed at helping people experience more in marriage and relationships.
To read more about Dr. Allan (who started this whole thing), you can check out this page.
To hear about why Simple Marriage really began, keep reading.
Upon leaving college I ventured into the world of Youth and Family Ministry, 6 years later I left the ministry while at the lowest point in my marriage and life. My wife and I were at such a low point that she even handing me her wedding ring back.
After rebuilding my life and my marriage, Pam and I began a journey towards a relationship that has been better than either of us ever imagined. Along the way I started working towards a Doctorate in Family Therapy, opened a private practice, and started a family.
Early on in my life as a therapist, I had one evening where I worked with 4 couples in a row. During that evening, 3 of the 4 couples were in really tough patches, on the verge of divorce. While I did what I could to help them, I went home that night with thought that there’s got to be a better way to reach marriages before there’s major issues.
And Simple Marriage the blog began.
Since then, it’s evolved to more than just a blog.
In November of 2011, we launched Sexy Marriage Radio. A weekly show that takes a fresh, honest, upfront look at the blessing of sex in marriage.
So now, The Simple Marriage Network is a small business that produces quality resources, courses and products both in print and audio format to help with the various things that often occur in marriage.
To further our reach and the depth of material offered we launched My Simple Marriage – a revolutionary new way to improve marriages around the globe!
The way we look at it, Simple Marriage exists in the gap between working directly with a Marriage and Family Therapist and heading to Amazon and picking up a marriage book.
Simply put, Simple Marriage is in the marriage improvement and education business.
So what does this mean? Glad you asked.

What Marriage Education Is

Marriage education’s focus is on taking action to prevent future problems, and it is aimed at transforming marriages to provide healthy stability and unity for families and communities. It includes such activities as reading books, studying in groups, taking courses, and participating in workshops. It provides important knowledge, skills, and attitudes about relationships and marriage to foster a gradual and organic improvement process.
Marriage education focuses on building a couples capacity and strengths. It equips people to be healthy individuals with many character strengths, which then translates into them being better spouses. This could include preparation for relationships and marriage for individuals and couples of all ages and experience levels. Marriage education also provides marriage-strengthening tools for healthy married couples who want to continue learning, growing, and developing.
Marriage education is an excellent choice for:

  • unmarried people interested in learning about relationships
  • couples considering dating, courtship, and marriage
  • newly married couples
  • unmarried people and couples considering re-marriage
  • couples experiencing the usual ups and downs of married life
  • couples experiencing external tests that can affect the marriage
  • couples in life-stage transitions
  • couples with strong marriages that enjoy enriching their marriage further

If you’re interested in improving an already good relationship, be sure to check our products.

What Marriage Education is Not

Marriage education is not counseling or therapy, but instead it focuses on building understanding and competence. It is not generally for couples in crisis, although marriage education can provide skill building and assistance for deeply troubled couples considering separation or divorce.
There is a section of Simple Marriage devoted towards marital crisis and chronic issues (see below).
Marriage education may warn some couples who are experiencing difficulties of the need to address their problems. However, the timing of marriage education sometimes may not be appropriate when a marriage is in active crisis or decline. This could include:

  • signs of estrangement or aversion
  • chronic conflict
  • any type of abusive behavior
  • infidelity
  • significant diminishing in feelings of hope, joy, commitment

Seriously troubled couples may find marriage education by itself to be discouraging and would benefit from professional services. This could come in the form of working with a therapist in your area or joining Married Life 911.
Everything in the store is backed by a 100%, rock-out-your-marriage guarantee for a full year, and more resources are on the way.
Viva la marriage!