Awards!
SF
Bay Guardian "Best of the Bay" Award
2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007
Voted Best Wedding Gift Not Listed in the
Registry
Best
Couples Counselor
To
celebrate their status as Mr. and Mrs. (or
Mr. and Mr. or Mrs. and Mrs.), you can do
better for your newly betrothed friends than
a nonstick bundt pan. Instead, send them to
relationship boot camp with Dr. Michelle Gannon
and Dr. Patrick Gannon, two local psychologists
who are a happily married couple themselves.
Their get-tough motto? Love isn't enough.
The husband-and-wife therapists, who both
do couples counseling in their individual
practices, teach Marriage Prep 101 as a lecture
course for the engaged, including lots of
private exercises, worksheets, and quizzes
for the spouses-to-be. The Gannons aren't
shy about making examples of themselves and
sharing their own interpersonal foibles. They
coach new couples to frankly talk with each
other about their expectations for money,
sex, kids, work, religion, and infidelity
— what they call marriage planning,
which can often get railroaded in the florist-and-caterer
orgy of wedding planning. The theory is that
while the disgustingly happy lovebirds are
still in that "magic window" of
googly-eyed bliss, they're more open to learning
skills for handling the inevitable sources
of conflict that will emerge. Marriage Prep
101 is a secular, nonsexist alternative to
premarital counseling in the church, designed
to leave the bride and groom vowing to love,
honor, and process. 417 Spruce, S.F. (415)
905-8830.
