When your marriage needs bootcamp
Ignite your spirituality, sensuality and sexuality to make marriage work
We have come to enjoy the table flipping, bottle throwing, and cursings that often come with reality shows that put marriage couples through bootcamp.
The most infamous being the marriage boot camp with Dr Drew, which sees couples slugging it out and laying out their problems for the world to see, before being given some gruelling tasks by the famous therapist which challenge their commitment.
While some things may be exaggerated for TV and ratings, would you and your partner go to a marriage boot camp?
We found one in South Africa, simply called Marriage Bootcamp; with the slogan “Igniting your spirituality, sensuality and sexuality”, founded by Ria Thetswe, who runs it with her husband of 11 years from Krugersdorp.
“We empower married women and men to feel comfortable in their own skin and body shapes; to get in touch with their sexuality and sensuality in their bedrooms.
“We also offer our services to single women and men to help them with their dating ups and downs, and to determine if the relationship they are currently invested in is a waste of their time, or if it will potentially lead to marriage.”
Thetswe says that they offer married couples a 10-week course, which will only be attended once a week, and that they offer counselling, couples’ exercises, marriage seminars, team building exercises, sensual games, eating habits for better sex and sensual dancing classes for women.
According to her, every married couple that feels like they are stuck in a rut sexually or going through a rough patch and even contemplating divorce, can benefit from their boot camp.
“I have found that a lot of issues within a marriage occur because people either become too comfortable and change from the people they once were, or there simply is a com- munication breakdown.
“Most of the time within a marriage, there can be a lot of finger pointing and blame shifting, and a refusal to take responsibility for one’s actions.
“We have designed teambuilding exercises to tackle such problems, to help build broken trust between the couple and to help them connect spiritually and sexually by taking them back to that place where they first met, and almost reminding themselves why they fell in love in the first place.”
Are they as harsh as the counsellors we see on TV? Thetswe is quick to say no, and notes that if a married couple is already in a tumultuous situation, it really does not make sense to exacerbate the situation by being harsh to the couples.
The price range for the activities is between R800 and R3 000, depending on the couple’s needs. “We received a lot of feedback from the many couples we have assisted, who tell us how they have learned to communicate more effectively, how they put the spark back into their bedrooms and how their fights and bickering have subsided or totally stopped.
“So it is a very effective programme that can benefit couples in trouble.”