Darryl and Pati have been happily married for over 50 years and enjoy being close to their two children and five grandchildren in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. What distinguishes their counseling from most others are 2 important distinctions. First of all, they bring over 50 years of true marital happiness and experience to the counseling relationship. To be blunt, if a counselor has been married and divorced multiple times, they are hardly the one a counselee can trust for wise advice. Remember the adage, "Do as I say, not as I do?" It applies to the counselor as much as it would apply to the doctor giving advice on losing weight when he himself is 150 pounds overweight. On the other hand, a couple like ourselves who have experienced the ups and downs of life over and over again, and have come out brighter and better as a result, with their marriage not just intact but thriving, our experience and wisdom are invaluable.

Secondly, Darryl and Pati include the spiritual and emotional dimension in their counseling. We, meaning all of us, are spiritual creatures. Our spiritual perspective of who we are and our purpose in life translates into how we treat others, especially our spouses. For example, in our counseling, you will hear again and again the need to treat one another as best friends. This means that you would hear us encourage you to treat your spouse better, much better, than you would your co-workers of either sex. When we speak of the emotional component, we are speaking of the "baggage" brought into a marriage from the past. Many counselors do this as well, but we know that childhood experiences, both good and bad, but mainly bad, carry over into the present day and those memories must be dealt with properly. They don't just disappear once a person says "I do"! That's where spiritual advice profoundly impacts how those memories can be dealt with. They can either control a person (not good) or be conquered (very good).