Family Trainings FAQ

In an environment of love, discovery, and adventure we inspire and empower families to achieve excellence.

Questions

• What is the purpose of the Assessment Tools that you offer to any family (or couple) desiring to use them?
• What are some of the feelings and beliefs that LIFE Family Trainings and Adventures has about families?
• What is happening with families now? Why does it seem so much harder to build and maintain a strong, loving, and effective family?
• What are some of the qualities of a Family of Excellence that LIFE can help a family attain?
• What has led your family to create the Life Institute for Family Excellence and LIFE Family Trainings and Adventures?
• How do you go about accomplishing this objective?
• What about the free post-training Life Coaching? What is its purpose?
• What are some of the principles around which you build the training, and why these specific ones?
• What about practical tools a family can use?
• All of your trainings seem to pay significant attention to what you refer to as "The Four Areas of Need." Why is that?
• What experience and skill set do LIFE Trainings and Adventures possess to be able to deliver on its objectives in serving families?
• Is LIFE Trainings and Adventures a professional counseling organization?
• There don't seem to be many family training opportunities in the marketplace. Why is that and how do you deal with the inherent challenges posed by training families as opposed to just individuals?

Answers

Q: What is the purpose of the Assessment Tools that you offer to any family (or couple) desiring to use them?

A: Every family is a work in progress. The key to the Family Assessment Tool is its ability to help identify not only the areas of concern in the family dynamic, but to also highlight the strengths that your family possesses so that they can help form the basis of the family transformation.

Even highly successful and effective families often drift off-course and have pressure points and areas of contention in their relationships. The difference is that they recognize the areas of challenge and are actively engaged in finding solutions. Research and experience have shown that a professional assessment tool can assist a family to rise above their biases and emotions to develop a clear picture of strengths and weaknesses. Identifying the issues is often half the battle in healing and strengthening your family.

We have analyzed and tested many assessment tools and have selected one developed by a major U.S. university for use in our work with families. This professional tool is used in family research and counseling programs around the world and now you can have access to it without cost or obligation. To use this valuable and easy-to-use resource click here. If you have questions about the Assessment Tool please contact the Institute. You can also find a Marriage Assessment Tool in the LIFE Couples Retreats and Trainings section of this site.

Q: What are some of the feelings and beliefs that LIFE Family Trainings and Adventures has about families?

A: We believe the family to be the fundamental building block of society, and the entity upon which rests the future of our nation and world. We also believe the greatest joys and the most valuable learning experiences in life are to be found within the family structure and its relationships. It is this crucial role of the family, with all its potentials, that also means our greatest disappointments and sorrows may well be found in those relationships if the family loses its focus and its preeminence among family members.

Q: What is happening with families now? Why does it seem so much harder to build and maintain a strong, loving, and effective family?

A: The world, as a whole, can weaken and marginalize those families not prepared to recognize and respond to the constant pressures and demands that our society places on our time, attention and energy. It is hard for the family to compete with those demands and with the generally negative media barrage that has come to define our modern culture.

None of us come from a perfect family, so the blueprint we might carry in our minds won't necessarily lead to the successful family we dream of. And our society places little emphasis on helping people prepare for the challenges (as well as the opportunities) that are encountered as we build our families.

Fortunately most families, even those that might feel that they are really struggling, are usually just a relatively few degrees off course and with some directed and coordinated effort can again line themselves up with their desired destination of joy and effectiveness.

Q: What are some of the qualities of a Family of Excellence that LIFE can help a family attain?

A: Creating a family of excellence is the work of a lifetime. We need not achieve that goal in a day, but neither should we put off beginning the journey. Even as we simply strive to improve we will experience joy and fulfillment commensurate to our efforts. Most excellent families are successful in or working towards many of the following goals:

• They are committed to the family
• They love and appreciate one another and make time for the family
• They actively seek to create joy and accomplishment in the family
• They support one another in achieving excellence in school, career, relationships, and every worthy endeavor
• The family and each member is accountable for their actions and results
• They communicate with kindness and authenticity
• They solve problems and surmount obstacles efficiently
• They create a haven of safety and security in their home and within the family circle
• They serve one another and the world
• They are spontaneous and have fun and laugh together
• They are trusting and trustworthy
• They are united in their goals and aspirations
• They help fulfill the worthy needs of each family member
• They help one another to heal the inevitable wounds of life
• They forgive one another and seek forgiveness
• They help lead the world away from the darkness and towards the light

Q: What has led your family to create the Life Institute for Family Excellence and LIFE Family Trainings and Adventures?

A: We feel that we can assist families to reconnect and recommit themselves to the family, its relationships and its potential for growth and joy. When all is said and done, it is home, family, and relationships that will most fully define our success and happiness in this life. For years we have hosted families, couples, and youth groups at our facilities and seen them return to their homes not only rested and refreshed, but more prepared to take on life with confidence and enthusiasm.

Q: How do you go about accomplishing this objective?

A: It is really a multi-layered process. First, building on what nature has so abundantly provided at Gunnison Bend Reservoir in Delta, Utah and in the mountains of Scofield, Utah, we have created an environment where fun and high adventure are a part of the every-day norm, but that is also conducive to relaxation and introspection. Families will feel the reconnection and strengthening of family bonds as they play and relax together.

Through facilitated discussion and training times, campfire programs, a spiritual Vesper Trail, and other teaching/learning moments the family has opportunity to examine and commit to a set of principles upon which they can continue to build their family and their own personal character. The family will receive the training, tools, and resources that will prepare them for the next great adventures of life.

Finally, appropriate challenges and adventure activities are offered to the family not only to provide fun and family bonding, but to also ensure a continual hands-on element of the training. For example, what better way for a family member to learn and internalize principles such as accountability, communication, and leadership than to plan and carry out a significant family activity, such as an ATV safari? Read about how we work with families in this scenario.

Q: What about the free post-training Life Coaching? What is its purpose?

A: Most of us, whether in our experience with New Years Resolutions or perhaps other training programs, have gone through an initial period of excitement and commitment as we set out to make changes, only to see our own ineffective fixed beliefs, and the inertia and obstacles of real life knock us off our new-found track and back into the middle of our old shackled comfort zones. The hands-on and experiential elements of our training will help you internalize the principles and tools, but we take things a remarkable step further to help your family avoid the regression to former habits and patterns.

Through a series of post-training Coaching calls with the family and individual members our training staff, which is very well acquainted with you and your goals by now, will offer encouragement and support as you work towards your goals. We can't do it for you, but we can remind you of your training and the principles learned and help you develop creative and successful ways to surmount obstacles and take full advantage of opportunities.

Q: What are some of the principles around which you build the training, and why these specific ones?

A: The family and individual experiences and learning will be as unique as each family and person. But there are two foundational realities upon which our training philosophy is built:

1. We subscribe to the truth that virtually all inappropriate choices and actions that damage lives and relationships spring from deep and unmet needs in the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual realms. Our trainings address that reality and facilitates families and individuals identifying those personal areas of need, and developing healthy means and processes for them to be met within the family structure.

2. Certain eternal and unchanging principles form the bedrock upon which ALL meaningful and joyful lives are built. Among those are:

   • Accountability; always a creator, never a victim.
   • Problem Solving; because the purpose of life is to learn.
   • Trust and Integrity; because sometimes it is more important to be trusted than loved.
   • Love and Unity; because there will be no empty places at our family table.
   • Communication; because authenticity is the language of love.
   • Forgiveness; because it liberates us to love again.
   • Commitment and Faith; because they unlock the powers of the universe.
   • Leadership; because we are either being led to the darkness or are leading to the light.

   These principles are in turn supported by other principles and virtues essential for any family seeking to excel. These include Kindness, Service, Perseverance, Patience, Prioritizing, Seeking the Win/Win, Planning, and Work among others.

   These are not fads. They are not catch phrases from the latest self help book. They are not the win-at-any-cost strategies of so many other trainings. Make these a part of your life and the winds of life and expediency need never knock you off course again.

Q: What about practical tools a family can use?

A: The principles are lofty, as well as eternal and never changing. Quite different from the shifting sands of pop culture and so-called expert-speak we so often hear. But they each also have their practical side that lends itself to tools and resources that a family can use to help plot and maintain their course. To name just a few:

• Assessments to help identify specific areas of strength and weakness in the family and individuals.
• Work sheets and processes to help identify the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of family members; and programs to help see that those needs are fulfilled.
• Templates and assistance in building personal and family mission statements.
• Samples of charts that can help the family organize things like chores, allowance, and family activity responsibilities; and tools that can help them set and track goals and responsibilities.
• Processes and tools to help build healthy and authentic communication, to help mediate disputes, to help parents teach children, etc.
• And much, much more

Q- All of your trainings seem to pay significant attention to what you refer to as "The Four Areas of Need." Why is that?

A- We do indeed use this needs concept extensively in our trainings. We choose to do so for a number of reasons, including:

• Virtually all legitimate researchers, counselors, therapists, etc. agree that needs drive human behavior, and that every human has legitimate needs that, if not appropriately met, can lead to personal and family dysfunction. Conversely, when those needs are met, the result is happiness and fulfillment.
• As people become aware of those needs and can recognize them as legitimate and OK to have and express, they are more able to manage themselves and their relationships in ways that will help honorably meet those needs.
• Dividing the needs up into four areas simplifies the teaching and learning processes and helps students carefully evaluate their lives, section by section, as they come to better understand themselves and others.

The Four Areas of Need are Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual. Certainly different experts might apply somewhat different names to the individual areas, but these seem to resonate most effectively with the people whom we train. The needs might run from simple physical nutritional realities to the more complex emotional needs of affirmation and acceptance.

Much of our training is directed at helping families, couples, and youth to identify their own legitimate needs and to finding the most appropriate ways to communicate and fulfill the needs. We also assist people to become more sensitive to the needs of others.

Obviously the world has in many ways muddied the waters of true needs, confusing them with appetites and desires, itches to be scratched. As a result more and more people are continually pursuing what the world says they should want, but never finding true satisfaction and fulfillment from it.

Q: What experience and skill set do LIFE Trainings and Adventures possess to be able to deliver on its objectives in serving families?

A: It rests on our belief in and commitment to family. LIFE is made up of families that have experienced the highest exhilarations of family relationships and that have not been immune to the pain that comes in this, the highest stake endeavor any of us will ever be involved in.

We have been on a quest for many years to identify the dynamics that exist in families and how those dynamics can be recognized and managed to help lead the family to success. We have worked with many families, couples, and individuals through trainings and seminars and have developed a reservoir of experience and skill sets that help us deliver fun and effective trainings that can transform families.

Some specific skills, experience, and resources possessed by our staff:

1. Certified professional Mediator
2. University Degrees and Certifications in Youth Leadership and Recreation
3. Licensed nurse specializing in mental health care
4. Staff members with professional staff experience at Boys and Girls Clubs of America
5. Staff member with staff experience from Children and Family Crisis Center
6. Certified Ropes Course and climbing staff and facilitators
7. Certified Bio-Feedback specialist
8. All staff members are Certified and/or experienced and approved staff from other internationally recognized training programs (family, individual, and professional)
9. Authors in the area of family health and recovery
10. Experienced trainers in relationship dynamics.

Q: Is LIFE Trainings and Adventures a professional counseling organization?

A: No. LIFE is a professional training organization dedicated to teaching principles and processes that can help families become happier and more effective. While our vacations and trainings are indeed therapeutic, they are not designed as traditional mental health therapy.

If a family or individual is under the care of a therapist or mental health provider, it would be our intent to appropriately support such care through our training, without detracting from it in any way.

Q: There don't seem to be many family training opportunities in the marketplace. Why is that and how do you deal with the inherent challenges posed by training families as opposed to just individuals?

A: We define ourselves by this vision: "In an environment of love, discovery, and adventure we inspire and empower families to achieve excellence." While we offer great training programs to couples and youth, it is our family training programs that truly set us apart.

While there are plenty of personal trainings available in the marketplace, effective family trainings are hard to find. This is largely due to the fact that few can figure out how to train the mixed bag that is a family.

A family, with its wide range of adult and youth learners, sexes, preferred learning styles, psychological dimensions, etc. presents a daunting task for a trainer trying to make the family fit into a certain presentation and set of training exercises.

We have emphatically overcome those challenges by first embracing them. We make no attempt to cram a family (made up of round and square peg/members) into a pre-set hole of slide presentations, exercises, and bio breaks...We teach principles through a variety of teaching/learning methods then allow them to be experienced and internalized through the activities of a fabulous family vacation and adventure.

We maintain the commitment to the family and its success through a series of post-training coaching calls designed to assist the family and its members through the real world challenges that they will inevitably encounter.

Your family will very likely have more fun and excitement than they have ever experienced before. And our guarantee is that you will leave us a better family, on your way to becoming a family of excellence!