Book cover for "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work," featuring a close-up of intertwined wedding rings.

Improve Friendship. Enhance Intimacy. Manage Conflict.

A powerful program for couples who are ready to get closer, communicate better, and create the healthy relationship they deserve. This service is available in group and private coaching formats.

Deepen Your Connection

A couple sharing a close, intimate moment outdoors with the sky in the background, faces touching, with sunlight creating a warm glow.

Healthy relationships don’t magically happen. And when you hit a wall in your relationship, the answer isn’t to try to plow through it. It’s getting the right kind of support that actually helps.

If you’re ready to level up your relationship, boost intimacy without awkwardness, communicate without sounding like you're arguing in subtitles, and feel more like a team again, The Seven Principles Workshop might be your new favorite thing. It’s a fun, interactive, hands-on experience for couples who want real, practical tools to build a stronger, healthier connection.

Designed by world-renowned relationship expert and psychologist Dr. John Gottman, based on findings from decades of research on the resilient factors that help marriages and committed relationships thrive.

Bring joy, passion, and understanding back into your relationship because you deserve a healthy love that lasts.

Set of books and cards about marriage and relationships, including 'The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work' and a green and white box from the Gottman Institute.

Learn Research-Proven Tools

Get the tools to:

  • Make conflict work for your relationship

  • Deepen intimacy and build trust

  • Identify your solvable vs. perpetual issues

  • Strengthen your foundation of friendship

  • Collaborate more effectively to solve problems

  • Communicate clearly and effectively (…and get more of what you want and need as a result!)

What’s included?

  • Live training provided by a Gottman-trained leader and Relationship Expert.

  • One copy of the Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work Book

  • 2 Copies of the Seven Principles for Couples Workbook

  • Love Maps Card Deck & Open-Ended Questions Card Deck

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Who would benefit from this program?

  • Married couples, from newlyweds to seniors

  • Couples planning to marry.

  • Those in a long-term committed relationship.

  • Those who wish to take their marriage from good to great

  • Those needing better conflict management skills

Who is this not suited for?

  • Severe relationship distress

  • Emotional abuse

  • Domestic violence

  • Active addictions (alcohol, drug, gambling)

  • Serious mental health problems in one or both partners

  • Single people

The 7 Principles Modules

  • Learn to understand your partner's inner world, including their hopes, dreams, fears, and the details of their life. This is an ongoing process as you both grow and change.

  • Discover how to focus on positive feelings for your partner. Express appreciation and keep a positive attitude toward each other, which helps during difficult times.

  • Learn how to pay attention to and respond to your partner's "bids" for connection, whether for attention, support, or affection. Turning toward each other builds trust and emotional intimacy.

  • Learn how criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling sabotage connection — and what to do instead.

  • Learn the skills to effectively navigate ongoing issues with compassion and care.

  • Develop skills to constructively address and resolve conflicts that have a clear solution.

  • Learn to navigate and manage conflicts that seem unsolvable. Instead of trying to "win" the argument, understand the underlying dreams, aspirations, and fears that are causing the impasse.

  • Build a sense of purpose together by developing shared rituals, supporting each other's roles, setting shared goals, and honoring shared values and symbols.

Three Convenient Formats

  • Private Coaching

    Get personalized, one-on-one support through The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work program and strengthen and transform your relationship, instead of navigating your growth in a group setting.

    Book

  • Group Coaching

    This group coaching format is perfect if you prefer a deep dive through virtual evening sessions spread over 8 weeks.

    Inquire

  • Weekend Intensive

    The weekend intensive is ideal for the couple that can dedicate a full Saturday to growing their relationship. 

    Inquire
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Meet Your Facilitator

April Nowlin is a trauma-informed, Certified Relationship Coach with over 10 years of experience helping individuals navigate personal and professional relationship challenges. April transformed her own story of heartbreak and renewal into a calling to help people heal deeply and love wisely.

After three failed marriages that left her overextended and striving for perfection, she discovered how to build a life rooted in emotional wholeness, spiritual alignment, and purpose-filled relationships.

April guides individuals and couples on the journey from brokenness to breakthrough. She teaches them how to rebuild self-worth, set healthy boundaries, create emotionally safe relationships, and prepare their hearts for lasting love, all without sacrificing their peace or identity.

Specialized Training

Common Questions

  • No, this coaching program offers educational material and is intended to be presented in a format where couples can learn about factors to strengthen their relationship. Couples therapy involves an ongoing therapeutic relationship aiming to repair maladaptive patterns in relationships.

  • No, exercises are presented during class with opportunities to practice, however, no personal information will be asked or required. There is no mandatory process and no mandatory sharing.

  • Yes, the workshop is designed for both individuals in a relationship.

  • No, this coaching program is educational and intended for couples with or without the experience of couples therapy.

  • If either partner feels the relationship is currently in a season of significant distress, please reach out to the facilitator to discuss whether this program is the right fit at this time. While the program is designed to help couples strengthen their connection, improve communication, and develop healthy conflict resolution skills—even during challenging moments—it’s important to ensure you’re in the best place to fully benefit from the experience.

  • Your registration fee is non-refundable, but transferable. Once registered, if unforeseen circumstances prevent you from attending a workshop, you will have the opportunity to transfer your fee to any other service provided through April Nowlin Coaching, including other workshops, intensives, or group coaching within 12 months of the registration date instead.

  • No, there is no make-up class or refunds for missed classes. There may be an option to review the class recording.

    • The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work” book

    • 2 hardcover workbooks

    • 2 discussion card sets