Encompass Connection Center
  • Home
  • About ECC
  • Couples
    • Free Relationship Assessments
    • The RINGS Experience
    • Wedding checklist (UK)
  • Families
    • Free Parenting Assessment
    • Parenting for Kid's Sake
    • The REACH Experience
  • Organizations
    • FREE Workplace Teams Assessment
    • Work Smart, Live Well
  • Donate
  • Get in touch
  • BLOG
PRACTICAL TIPS & INSIGHTS FOR YOUR

RELATIONSHIPS

Are you listening?

7/25/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture
By: Hollie Kowalski
Encompass Outreach Coordinator

We spend 70-80% of our day engaged in some form of communication. 55% of that time is generally devoted to listening. The average person who has not worked to develop good listening skills will only remember about half of any recent conversation. 48 hours after the conversation, they are likely to only remember 25% or less… and then there’s me.  My “working mom brain” has so many “open tabs” at any given time, I consider it a win if I remember my own children’s names on a daily basis.

Because of the “coordinated chaos” in my head sometimes, I tend to “drift” when conversing with my husband-especially in the evening after a long day. We don’t have much time together during the week and I always want him to feel that he is important, that I value his thoughts and emotions. So…

Read More
1 Comment

Get into the communication game … AND WIN!

7/12/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

By Kermit Rowe
 
Encompass Relationship Facilitator 
​

More than half my life was spent as a sports journalist, a life that is now in the rearview mirror. But I continue to see valuable corollaries between the games of the sports world and the game of life. In my last four years as an Encompass Connection Center relationship coach, the similarities are even more glaring – especially in realm of committed couple relationships. ​

Read More
0 Comments

Which Animal(s) are you when stressed?

7/5/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
The most common answer given to us, to the question "What are you struggling with as a couple?" is COMMUNICATION. This month our posts will feature tips, insights, and research related to improving communication.
​
By Lavern Nissley
Encompass Executive Director

The topic of communication is pretty broad, so we'll narrow the scope to the 2 basic elements of interpersonal asserting and listening. BOTH are needed in order for communication to be productive.

ASSERTING is expressing your wishes and interests in a positive way - not being aggressive or demanding. It is the opposite of being silent, of pretending to agree, of passive aggression.

LISTENING is hearing to understand what the other person is saying - not interrupting or planning your own response.

There are six animal types that represent common human responses to stress and that interfere with productive communication. Want to know your type(s)?

Read More
0 Comments

unbalanced objects always fall

6/28/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
By: Joe Kowalski
Owner/CEO Empowered Community Services

Most everyone can remember the panic, sudden jolt, and jarring pain of hitting the ground after their friend jumped off the teeter totter when we were kids.

Or that time when you were in a hurry to get home with the groceries. You’re late, it’s raining, and instead of making three trips into the house with the groceries in the rain, you try to carry all 37 bags at one time, only to slip on the pavement sending a week’s worth of groceries all over the garage floor.

What about this one? You are up against a deadline at work, going on 4 hours of sleep and you get a call at 5:30p from your spouse demanding “where are you?”  With everything going on, you forgot to update your calendar with the kids’ recital that you are now going to miss.  
​
These lessons on gravity, imbalance, and regret are hard to forget. Unbalanced objects, whether they be playground equipment, people, or the expectations of others, will always fall.
​
My wife and I have four children (3 high schoolers still at home,) a new grandson, 3 dogs, and I run my own small business. The demands on my time are many and balance becomes more and more difficult to maintain. By my own admission, I have a lot of work to do when it comes to balance in my life, but the following are a few pieces of advice I’ve come to cherish on this exceedingly difficult subject.


Read More
0 Comments

lessons from an earlier generation

6/21/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Ronda is the little girl sitting on her Daddy's lap. 
By: Ronda Nissley
​Encompass Co-Director


A year ago, I
gifted my 92-year-old father a Storyworth subscription for Father’s Day. Each week, he was given a question to which he could respond or simply write his own story. Although we’re still working on completing and editing the stories into their final format, I’m sharing one that has given me a renewed appreciation of the huge responsibility he carried providing for a family of nine children.
 

Read More
0 Comments

5 Values my dad taught me

6/7/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Lavern with his Dad, David Nissley, June 21, 2020
Our posts during June will feature the themes of Fathers, Father's Day, Leaders/Leadership.

By Lavern Nissley
Encompass Executive Director

My Dad would have turned 90 tomorrow, June 8. Although much of my experience of him as a father included spillovers from his own unhealed and unresolved childhood (anger, anxiety, agitation), I still miss him and acknowledge positive takeaways from his life.

He passed November 12, 2021 and is buried in Arcola, Illinois at the Sunnyside Mennonite Church cemetery. Mom was buried in the same plot earlier this year after her death March 6. Some of the content you'll see in this post is drawn from A Tribute to Our Dad that Ken, Karen, and I shared at his funeral.

But his legacy and impact are anything but buried. In some quirky and interesting ways they live on both in and through me.

Read More
0 Comments

In their own words: Gary and Andrea

5/31/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
After infidelity almost destroyed their marriage, Gary and Andrea Keener share why their giving to a cause for healthy marriages is an overflow of their own healing.

We're so grateful for and to this faithful couple. They embody the Encompass vision of Family trees forever changed. Their testimonial video below is inspiring and encouraging.

Read More
0 Comments

healthy boundaries

5/17/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture
By: Abby Glaser
Encompass Community Advocate
 

As part of Mental Health Awareness Month, I want to talk about a key factor in protecting and improving your mental health: Boundaries!  The topic of boundaries has become much more popular in the past decade, but many don’t really know what the term “healthy boundaries” means or how to go about implementing them.  ​

Read More
1 Comment

For better or worse, In fitness & Health?

5/10/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture
By Kermit Rowe 
Encompass Relationship Facilitator 

If you are looking for objective, empirical evidence that physical fitness leads to marital happiness and endurance, you’ll be looking long and hard. There just isn’t much out there. 

But observation and personal experience offer plenty of evidence that it does. Focus On The Family, one of the preeminent marriage ministries of the 20th and 21st centuries, offers this in a recent article: “Exercise isn’t the answer to every marriage issue, but it will help you to bond on a new level and establish invaluable disciplines, such as perseverance and goal-setting, that can help combat marital fatigue.” ​

Read More
1 Comment

Why bicycling is Our Favorite health investment

5/3/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture
By Lavern Nissley
Encompass Executive Director

(Our blog posts in May will feature content surrounding health of various types - with a connection to relationships, of course!)

​Those of you that know Ronda and me well know that we've become quite fond of bicycling. In fact, you may know that for the past thirteen years we've ridden about 13,000 miles on a rather unique looking tandem recumbent bike. It has provided us with hundreds of hours interacting with each other and working together as a team (most of the time😊) to enjoy biking adventures, sometime up to 30 and 40 miles at a time. We've accomplished six or seven "century rides" - that's 100 miles in one day.

What you may not know is the "WHY" of bicycling for us. You'll see three solid reasons that have made this activity our favorite health investment.

Read More
1 Comment
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Subscribe

    * indicates required
    Picture

    Hosts

    Lavern & Ronda Nissley are co-directors of Encompass. Married since 1978, both enjoy coffee, riding their tandem bicycle and working together to build strong relationships.

    TOPICS

    All
    5 Love Languages
    Abuse
    ACE Score
    Achievement
    Aging
    Amygdala Hijack
    Anger
    Any Relationship
    Apologizing
    Asking Great Questions
    Attention
    Bids
    Busy Calendar
    Change
    Children
    Children And Divorce
    Christmas
    Coaching
    Commitment
    Communication
    Competition
    Conflict
    Confronting
    Connection
    Consequences
    Counseling
    Couples
    COVID
    Date Night
    Death
    Deposits
    Divorce
    Emotions
    Empathy
    Especially For Couples
    Especially For Families
    Especially For Organizations
    Exercise
    Expectations
    Falling
    Family Business
    Family Trees
    Fatherhood
    Fathers
    Fear
    Finances
    Forgiveness
    Fun
    Generational Trends
    Genetics
    Getting Along
    Getting Things Done
    Giving
    Grandchildren
    Gratitude
    Grief
    Grieving
    Healthy Eating
    Healthy Lifestyle
    Holidays
    Humility
    Humor
    Illness
    Infidelity
    In Laws
    In-Laws
    Insomnia
    Intimacy
    Kindness
    Leadership
    Learning
    Legacy
    Listening
    Live Well
    Long Distance
    Loss
    Love
    Love Defined
    Marriage
    Minimalizing
    Morale
    Offenses
    Office Culture
    Our Stories
    Outcome Orientation
    Parenting
    Parenting Adult Kids
    Peace
    Personality
    Planning
    Polarization
    Power Of 2
    Praying Together
    Preparation
    Proactivity
    Problem Orientation
    Productivity
    Research
    Restoration
    Retirement
    RINGS Chat
    RINGS Experience
    Romance
    Romantic Attraction
    Satisfaction
    Schedule
    Screen Use
    Siblings
    Sleeping
    Smartphones
    Stress
    Success
    Suicide
    Surprises
    Survey
    Talking
    Teamwork
    Teens
    Timeouts
    Traits
    Transformation
    Understanding
    Valentine's Day
    Virtual Relationships
    Wedding
    Withdrawals
    Working Out
    Work Smart

    Archives

    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018

Picture

FIND IT QUICKLY

Refer A CLIENT
Schedule meeting
SHOP RINGS PROGRAM
bring rings to my area

STAY CONNECTED

OFFICE HOURS

MON 9a-2p
TUE 9a-2p
WED 9a-2p
THU 9a-2p
​Other hours by appointment
call us

VISIT US

616 N. Limestone St. | Springfield, OH
Funding is provided by Clark County Job and Family Services, The Turner Foundation, Springfield Foundation, Buckeye Health, private donations and fees.
​Program content is the sole responsibility of Encompass Connection Center and does not necessarily represent the views of the funders.
Encompass Connection Center services are provided to all eligible persons on a non-discriminatory basis. Encompass Connection Center complies with all applicable laws and regulations concerning discrimination does not discriminate on the basis of the potential participant's race, gender, gender orientation, age, disability or religion.

​Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 37-1485217
  • Home
  • About ECC
  • Couples
    • Free Relationship Assessments
    • The RINGS Experience
    • Wedding checklist (UK)
  • Families
    • Free Parenting Assessment
    • Parenting for Kid's Sake
    • The REACH Experience
  • Organizations
    • FREE Workplace Teams Assessment
    • Work Smart, Live Well
  • Donate
  • Get in touch
  • BLOG