The Knot's Hall of Fame Winner

For 5 years of excellence

     We're so glad you're here! Rock Your Relationship is passionate about couples like you and helping them to create beautiful, long-lasting relationships that both partners will love. Our program is the best of the best and backed by the latest scientific research, which states that taking a quality premarital course such as ours, will reduce your chances of divorce by 30% and that is great news for couples!

     We're here to help you succeed by teaching you the essentials: great communication skills that foster deeper understanding and connection, easy conflict resolution skills that are simple to use and will equip you to collaboratively resolve the most challenging conflicts. We'll even teach you a unique method to build a bridge back to each other after a nasty argument. We provide both faith-based and secular premarital.

     The popular Prepare-Enrich online assessment is included in our program and will quickly identify all of your strength and growth areas. We'll show you how to take your growth areas and make them a strength.

The Prepare-Enrich online assessment will be tailored to meet your individual requests for Secular/Non-Faith, Christian, Catholic or Jewish. 

Premarital Couples

Rock Your Relationship was founded by Barbara Mackintosh, LMFT, CST in 2010 as a non-profit organization with two main goals – offer high quality Premarital Counseling and Wedding Officiating. Hundreds of couples attend our classes each year and give rave reviews for the reasonable pricing and relevant  curriculum that enables couples to grow together by creating new "our ways"while also learning how to communicate more effectively and resolve conflict without arguing or fighting.

Our process is structured to foster growth in all of the key areas of a couple's relationship. As couples work together to build the foundations of a healthy relationship, they are learning new skills that enable them to listen and understand the opinions and ideas of their partner. In essence, they are given the tools and skills that are necessary to co-create a relationship that they will love.

Our curriculum is based on a solid research foundation. Every couple will take the customized, strengths-oriented Prepare-Enrich assessment and learn new skill-building exercises that develop better communication and conflict resolution skills.

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Rock Your Relationship is considered the #1 Premarital Provider in the Twin Cities and has been inducted into The Knot's "Best of Weddings Hall of Fame" for Premarital and Wedding Officiating. This highly coveted award is only given to exceptional wedding professionals who have earned four or more of The Knot's annual "Best of Wedding Awards"  representing the top 4% of local wedding vendors  listed on The Knot.

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Rock Your Relationship offers four unique formats to choose from: 1) Private Premarital, 2) Group Premarital Classes, 3) Day-Long Group Premarital, and 4) Two-Day Weekender.

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All of our premarital options include a private session to review the results of the Prepare-Enrich online assessment.

Couples & Individual Therapy

One of my great passions is working with couples of all ages and throughout all of the life cycles from Premarital couples to Empty-nester couples and helping them to foster more intimate connections as well as improved communication and conflict resolution skills.

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As part of my Couples Therapy, I often meet individually with each partner to hear what their concerns are and to understand their goals for therapy without their partner in the room. Occasionally, I might work short term with one partner if there is something happening individually that would block the growth of the couple's relationship.

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Another area I specialize in is working with individuals who are in some sort of transition or may have increased anxiety or depression due to life, work, or family challenges. Many clients verbalize the feeling of being stuck, overwhelmed, or alone; not knowing what's holding them back and unable to achieve or even know the way forward. Sometimes, it might be a past traumatic event that's blocking their self-growth or self-awareness, keeping them stuck in an anxious or fearful phobic state. Utilizing EMDR, (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) as an effective short-term therapeutic treatment in order to process the trauma, whether big or little, might be a course of action for us to explore together.

I conduct anxiety/depression groups two times a year that are each 8-weeks long. The most effective forms of therapy for these groups are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), combined with mindfulness. I love the group dynamic and how the group bonds together to encourage and gently challenge each other to achieve their goals and overcome their anxious fears. This group is for adults and college-age individuals.

Email me for dates of the next group.

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Intensive Couples Therapy

NEW!  2 -Day or 3-Day Weekend Couples / Marriage Intensives in Minnesota

Conducted by Couple’s and Sex Therapist, Barbara Mackintosh, LMFT, CST

If you’re marriage is on the rocks and seems to get more conflicted by the day or if it seems that the hurts, wounds and disappointments of marriage have left you scarred with sadness, hurt, anger or betrayal, then it may be time to try a 3-Day Couple’s Marriage Intensive. 

Barbara trained as an Emotionally Focused Couple's Therapist (EFT) in June 2015 with Susan Johnson. This training was revolutionary and it changed the way that Barbara worked with couples. EFT Couple’s Therapy is regarded as one of the best evidence-based short term therapies especially for distressed, wounded or conflicted couples.

Weekend intensive - 12 hours long - 3 days total

Day 1 - Friday - 3 hours from 5pm to 8pm

Day 2 - Saturday - 5 hours from 10 am to 4:00 with a 60-min lunch

Day 3 - Sunday -  4 hours from 10 am to 2 pm

Mini-Weekend Intensive - 8 hours long - 2 days total

Day 1 - Saturday - Pick 4 hours between 10 am to 4:00 pm 

Day 2 - Sunday -  Pick 4 hours between 10 am to 4:00 pm

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Sex Therapy

As an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, my focus is on helping individuals or couples create a strong foundation of sexual and emotional intimacy in their relationship that both partners will love and feel comfortable with.

We’ll have important conversations about your goals, your desires and the things that get in the way of achieving what you want. We can talk about harder things like sexual pain, low desire/no desire/mismatched desire, sexual addictions, sexual trauma, or lack of sexual functioning.

I’m a compassionate, non-judgmental therapist who accepts people for who they are and where they are. Today is a good day to start your journey, I’m here to assist.

I utilize a HIPAA compliant Telehealth system so your confidentiality is protected. Forms can be submitted and sessions can be done online from the comfort and safety of your home. Please email me if you have any questions or wish to schedule a 20-minute complimentary phone consult.