Relationship Inventories

A relationship inventory is an ideal way to provide a ’snapshot’ of a relationship.

It can help identify how well a couple have discussed some of the important areas of a relationship.

Oxfordshire Family Trust use two inventories:

• PREPARE/ENRICH
• FOCCUS (Facilitating Open Couple Communication Understanding and Study).

FOCCUS

FOCCUS was developed primarily for use by engaged couples, but can be very useful foir couples in the early mnoths or marriage.

It works in three stages:

Stage 1: Individually, both partners read and respond separately to 156 FOCCUS statements [either on the Internet or on answer sheets that are scanned later] as “AGREE” – “DISAGREE” – UNSURE”. Afterwards, the couple subsequently discuss between themselves what they think and feel about each topic.

Stage 2: The couple meet with a facilitator/mentor couple to consider the independently-scored FOCCUS couple report. Together, they look at patterns in the responses and discuss the issues. This leads to great understanding and agreement together.

Stage 3: Follow on with a 5 or 6 session marriage preparation course.

In this way, couples planning to get married are able to identify and work through issues before problems arise.

PREPARE/ENRICH

PREPARE/ENRICH works in a similar way to FOCCUS, but responses are on a five-point scale:

Strongly Agree | Agree | Unsure | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

PREPARE is for couples preparing for marriage

ENRICH is for couples already married or in a long-term relationship

for more details about any of the inventories, email: marriage@oxfordshirefamilytrust.org