About Safe Haven Center
Grow to live and love well
THE SAFE HAVEN RELATIONSHIP CENTER
The Safe Haven Relationship Center was founded by Dr Sharon May and joined by Alan Hart. It is a unique Relationship Center comprised of well-trained therapists, associates and life coaches in Carlsbad, California. Many of our clients come from all over the country to attend one of our highly successful marriage intensives, individual personal growth intensives, and training seminars. Dr Sharon May, Alan Hart, Linda Stewart and the Safe Haven Team teach nation-wide, attracting people from all over to our office in Carlsbad to attend our Safe Haven Intensives for hope, healing and training.
Our vision is to be a resource for you and your family through all the seasons of life. We want to bring hope as well as provide practical ways to help you heal, grow and flourish so you can love well in your relationships and live a good, meaningful life.
Our aim is to provide innovative intensives, cutting-edge counseling, and informative seminars to help you:
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• Grow as a person, become the best version of ‘you’
• Get through life’s difficult, traumatic and painful
struggles the healthiest
• Grieve, adjust and transition through life’s ever
changing seasons
• Discover a meaningful life vision and set goals
- Grow your character and find the courage to
overcome what keeps you stuck
• Develop a balanced, character-centered, emotionally
healthy way of life
• Restore and enrich your marriage
• Learn how to parent the best you can, strengthen and
foster a safe haven family
• Improve your personal and work relationships
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TYPES OF SERVICES WE OFFER
Intensives
We specialize in intensives. For couples, as well as families and individuals. The extended time and innovative intensive format allows for much progress in only a few days, it is the equivalent to about 6 months of coaching or counseling. A very successful and meaningful way to get to the heart of your marriage or life issues and find your way to the other side, healthier and stronger, within a few days.
* Safe Haven Marriage Intensives - In the Private format, one couple meets with one therapist for 2 to 4 days. In the Group format, 3 to 8 couples meet with 2 therapists over a several day period. This is known to be the best help for broken marriages.
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* Safe Haven Pre-Marital Intensives - For couples considering engagement or preparing for marriage, discover how to start a good connected marriage.
* Personal Growth Intensives for Individuals – this experience promotes personal and professional growth. The intensive fosters character growth, provides insight and change that will impact how you love, live and work. The format is a blend of powerful teaching and meaningful process groups.
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* Safe Haven Family Intensives - For families going through difficulties and longing for healing and connection. Young families or blended families seeking to create their family vision and rhythms. For families recovering from divorce or with adult children.
• Traditional Weekly Counseling Sessions – For those who prefer a weekly growth journey, we offer counseling sessions. You choose a therapist to meet with on a weekly bases for one hour to several hours at a time. Our practicum and associates are at a reduced rate, and very good counselors.
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• grow2gether - Seminars to help you thrive in life. Topics on fostering a safe haven marriage, parenting, how to have 'the conversation' with your kids,
If you are in a difficult season in your life or marriage, we would like to be there for you.
Whether your marriage needs a tune-up or is filled with hurts or betrayals, we would like to help you heal and foster a ‘safe haven marriage.’
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And if you are stuck and hurting in your life, the intensive experience allows you to get to the heart of your issues, make sense of and work them out over a few days.
We would like to offer you hope.
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The Safe Haven Intensive is very different to other kinds of therapy or intensives. That is because of the well known counseling model the intensive is based upon, the well-trained intensive leaders, and the incredible impact focusing for several days in a row has on your life and marriage.
Sharon May, Ph.D.
THE SAFE HAVEN MODEL
Our Intensive Story
Early in my career as a counselor, I, Dr Sharon May, saw couples in the traditional weekly format. I quickly found that weekly sessions were slow going, often difficult to get and keep significant momentum. So I extended the hourly sessions to a few hours, then a few days. I found the extended time (3 days are optimal) allowed me to make much progress with significant and meaningful change. And the changes were deep and lasting. We began to offer the intensive model as an alternate to weekly counseling and the intensives quickly became popular. Individuals also asked for intensives to move through the growing process over a few days rather than many months. Joined by Alan Hart, we have become known for our innovative and successful Safe Haven Intensive Model. For couples, individuals and even families longing to heal and foster a Safe Haven Marriage.
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Safe Haven Model
The intensives and counseling are based upon the “Safe Haven Model”. It is an integration of Emotionally Focused Therapy, faith, attachment theory, neurobiology of relationships as well as cutting-edge relationship and emotional intelligence research. Dr Sharon May is the originator of the Safe Haven Model, refined and expanded with Alan Hart.
At the heart of the Safe Haven Model is Emotionally Focused Therapy. EFT was originally co-conceptualized by Dr Susan Johnson and Les Greenberg and is the most well-researched and highly successful marital and individual therapy model of today. The model shows a 75% to 84% rate of change and 90% rate of significant change. That means, after going to counseling with an EFT therapist, 7 out of 10 couples make it and perceive their marriage to be a safe haven. And research shows that even after 4 years, couples and individuals are still doing better than ever.
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The Safe Haven Model walks people through a meaningful, life impacting personal journey. The process helps people understand the way they relate in life, identifying their hurts and stuck places. And provides a safe place for couples and individuals to process, grow and heal. This fosters inner character allowing for new, healthier ways of being in life and relationships.
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OUR VISION
At Safe Haven Relationship Center, we believe we are created to live and grow in relationship with others. We are designed to live a meaningful life while loving and being loved by others, working, exploring, creating and playing. We do our best in life when we are whole, balanced, well-rounded individuals with vision and purpose, in close connected relationships with those we love.
The Safe Haven Intensive Journey helps you become aware of your vulnerabilities, hurts, stuck places and the unproductive ways you cope with your pain and struggles. The intensive experience helps you understand how your past, fears and dragons that have shaped who you are. Counseling and coaching also help you navigate through hardships and struggles so you can grow, mature and become all God has for you to be. And since your ‘character’ is the summation of who you are, growing your ‘character’ allows you to live and love well. The intensive journey and counseling experience is also a way for you to obtain support, wisdom and direction as you get through hurts, traumas, difficult transitions and tough situations.
The support of your coach or counselor helps you find the courage to be the best version of yourself in all situations. The process helps you not only get through, but become a better person, getting the most out of this precious life God has given us.
What often scares us the most in our life, is not the painful situation we are facing, but rather facing it alone. We were created to grow in community, and we do our best when connected to meaningful community of caring people.
Come grow with us.
