About this vendor
Rock Your Relationship is the #1 Premarital provider in the Twin Cities. We teach couples how to create vibrant, connected and lasting relationships. Numerous group premarital classes are offered yearly, as well as our new Day-long classes which are great for couples who need premarital but are short on time. Private premarital is available and is amazing since you pick the days and times that we meet. All of our pricing includes the popular Prepare/Enrich® online assessment providing you an accurate picture of your strength and growth areas. All our premarital classes qualify for the $75 discount on your marriage license.
Kent is a Professional Wedding Officiant with 20 years of experience.
Kent Mackintosh, Officiant
Barbara Mackintosh, LMFT, CST
Licensed Psychotherapist & Sex Therapist
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Ceremony Types
- Civil Union
- Interfaith Ceremony
- Non-Religious Ceremony
- Religious Ceremony
- Second Wedding
- Vow Renewal Ceremony
Religious Affiliations
- Christian
- Catholic
- Protestant
- Interfaith
- Secular
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Premarital Counseling
- Wedding
- Ceremony
Awards and Affiliations
4-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2019.2018.2017.2015.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Hall of Fame
Earned by winning 'Best of Weddings' four or more times.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
4.7
out of 5.076 reviews
We chose to do the 4 private sessions with Barbara. While there were some helpful aspects, our overall experience was unsatisfactory given the cost.
Barbara frequently forgot our...
names, occupations, and relevant aspects of our relationship, despite taking notes. She often seemed confused at where we were at in her course and revisited topics we had already discussed in detail while skipping other sections. There were several times where we tried to redirect the discussion to topics that were more relevant for us, but this was unsuccessful.
Lastly, Barbara said we would receive our copy of the results of the Prepare/Enrich Assessment after our final evaluation, but it has been over a month and we have not. We reached out to Barbara multiple times via email about this and have not received any response. This is frustrating because the assessment was one of the main reasons we chose to go with Barbara.
In conclusion, our experience with Rock Your Relationship was disappointing.
We completed our Weekender session with Barbara and we couldn’t be happier. After our two 4 hour sessions we feel more connected and we also feel more gratitude and appreciation fo...
r each other. Barbara was knowledgeable, compassionate, fair, and calm. We’re really happy we chose to work with her and would highly recommend her to others!
Barb is friendly and was quick to respond to our initial email inquiry about premarital counseling. However, as we were trying to set up our initial appointments, she was somewhat ...
difficult to get in touch with and had an issue getting ‘locked out of her calendar’. We scheduled all four of our sessions and started the next week. Barb offered that we could do some of the sessions virtually since we live about 75 miles from her office and she had become accustomed to that with pandemic restrictions, which we appreciated. Our first session went well, and we indicated to Barb that we likely would do our next session virtually but that we would confirm before then; she said she just needed a few hours notice to set up a Google Meet. Our second appointment was on a Thursday, so I emailed Barb on Tuesday to confirm that we would be meeting virtually. By Thursday midday I hadn’t received a response, so I texted her to check if she’d seen my email. She never responded to that either, so around 4:50 I called in advance of our 5:00 appointment. She didn’t answer the phone, and her voicemail was full so I was unable to leave a message. We proceeded to call three more times over the next 30 minutes or so until finally receiving an email from her at 5:19 pm asking if we were meeting virtually. Once we connected, she offered no apology or explanation for her lack of communication or tardiness for our appointment and she was unable to get her sound working for another five minutes or so, so our meeting actually started around 5:30. We still finished on time, so our session was shorted by 30 minutes or so. Our third meeting was in-person, and this time we verified that we would again plan to meet virtually for our fourth meeting so she could note/plan for that now. I also indicated that we would need a certificate of completion to submit with our marriage license application to qualify for the discount that the state of MN offers. Barb was late for our fourth meeting as well, but sent the link to join at 5:09 pm for our 5:00 appointment. At the end of the meeting, I inquired about the certificate of completion and she had it there in front of her in an envelope and took my address down to mail it; this was on a Wednesday. By Tuesday of the following week I had not yet received the certificate so I sent a text to ask if she had mailed it; she said it may have taken a day or two, but yes it was on its way. By the following Thursday (15 days after our 4th session and 9 days after my first text inquiry), we still had not received the certificate so I texted again, indicating that we were getting nervous because we were now 23 days from our wedding and needed to apply for our marriage license. At this point, she notifies me that she was sure she had mailed it but that she just found it in her bag; it arrived two days later. From start to finish, our experience was disjointed and the communication was awful. The actual counseling services we received were decent, but the stress and frustration of trying to arrange all of it overshadowed it.
My husband and I did pre martial counseling here. We chose to do the group session which I’m glad we did. I really enjoyed hearing other people’s experience. However, we’ve been to...
gether for about 5 years and I felt like this was more for newer couples but that also could’ve been our specific group. We did learn some great things about each other. It just wasn’t for us.
We took Rock Your Relationship's premarital course in the summer of 2020 for our October wedding (which we ended up postponing eventually). While my fiancé and I did learn some val...
uable communication tools from the course we were not fully satisfied with the course for a number of reasons: 1. Barbara was so kind and flexible with schedules during COVID however she clearly tried to do too much because she could never remember our names, jobs, or really any details about us each session. 2. We took a quiz at the end of course and reviewed it but we were not allowed to take home the information that we received from the quiz. It would have been more beneficial to take the quiz at the start of the course so that we could work on the issues at hand instead of at the end. Barbara had us take the quiz, tell us all of the things that were bad and then gave us no tools to improve upon those issues. 3. We had one session where Barbara misunderstood an issue we were describing and as a result was significantly negative towards my fiancé. He left crying and this actually caused more tension in our relationship. 4. The cost of this is extremely high for what we feel we got out of it. The course follows the Enrich and Prepare course which most churches follow and you can also find online. We would not recommend this unfortunately.
Barbara did a fantastic job leading our pre-marital counseling sessions. We especially liked learning more about different communication and conflict resolution styles. We would hi...
ghly recommend Rock Your Relationship if you are searching for premarital counseling services in the Twin Cities area.
Barbara is amazing! I’ve already referred her to three of my friends.
The pastor who is marrying my future husband and I recommended RYR premarital. We are both religious people and I do enjoy that RYR is a Christian based counseling service, but I t...
hink you would feel just as comfortable being a non-Christian and attending their premarital sessions. It has really helped us in the process of creating our ideal marriage and given tips on how to navigate families, conflict, and personality differences. We are only halfway through our sessions at this point but it has been such a great experience thus far!
Kent and Barbara were beyond wonderful to work with. We participated in the group pre-marital class, and we had Kent as our officiant not once but twice thanks to Covid! The premar...
ital classes brought up so many conversations and topics that are necessary before marriage that we never would have thought of on our own. They really helped us grow as a couple, as well as individuals. We learned so many great tools that we have continued to use since the class and plan on using throughout our marriage. Kent was a phenomenal officiant. He participated in our group pre-marital counseling sessions, and met with us outside of class to get to know us for our big days. He was more than willing to step up and officiate our big day, and then do it all again for the "re-do" ceremony we were lucky enough to be able to have with family and friends. They are great people to work with, and a phenomenal couple to look up to and receive advice from. We cannot say enough good things about Barbara, Kent, and Rock your Relationship. We highly recommend them to anybody looking for pre-marital classes and an officiant!
We signed up for a private class on Feb 10th and still haven’t been contacted to schedule. It’s Feb 20 when I write this review. We’ve called and emailed. I understand people go on...
vacation but there is no indication on voicemail or email that this is the case. Barring her being in quarantine in China over the coronavirus I really don’t think this lapse in time is professional. I’ll update this review if she is indeed in quarantine!
We did "The Weekender" for our premarital counseling, and we absolutely loved it. Barbara walked us through a workbook and compatibility test that helped open up multiple conversat...
ions about communication, conflict resolution, love languages, and our own triggers. We're a same sex couple, and she treated us with respect and care. It's been my favorite part of wedding planning, and brought me and my future wife even closer together.
A worthwhile experience for couples at all stages of life (first time marriages, vow renewals and divorcees/blended families).
You will discover insight about yourself, your partn...
er and your relationship through a battery of quizzes/homework, group conversations and a private session.
Barbara is professional, personable and a sincere facilitator. Rock Your Relationship is an excellent investment in you and your partners future!
We selected the private premarital counseling option and completed the sessions in spring 2019. We were asked to complete premarital counseling by our officiant and were excited to...
find an option that was not affiliated with a church/religion.
The experience of the counseling sessions did not meet our expectations - it didn't seem like our counselor remembered our names/information from session to session, which created a very impersonal experience and often felt like we started over rather than the sessions building on the last. We were also disappointed in the content as it didn't seem to fit for couples that are nontraditional or do not fit with the more standard gender roles. Overall, we were excited for the experience and investing in our future marriage but in hindsight would not have paid the larger amount for private sessions due to the experience we had.
Barbara was wonderful! My husband and I have been together for over 5 years - 4 of which we lived together. So there isn’t much we haven’t talked about or been through. However, th...
is class brings up great subjects you haven’t thought about as well as practices to bring into your relationship to help it grow. I highly recommend Rock Your Relationship, even if you have a great relationship already!
Barbara was wonderful through the process. My fiancé and I loved that she didn't avoid any subjects and really made us feel welcome to talk to her about our concerns without judgem...
ent. She gave great advice that we started using for conflict management and general relationship maintenance that has already worked wonders. We took a very extensive "test" at the end and she really took the time to go over answers and concerning areas with us so it truly felt like she left no stone unturned. If we ever feel like we need help again we will be going back to Barbara.
We loved this program! My fiance and I did private sessions with Dr. Mackintosh and really enjoyed the process. She is very knowledgeable and easy to talk to, and she gave us some ...
very helpful tools that made us both feel a bit more prepared for marriage.
Barbara was awesome in our therapy sessions! I loved that she shared the research behind her method and helped us learn and connect on an even deeper level. Your marriage will be s...
tronger and healthier if you take this course!! Kent is also very friendly, accommodating and professional. We really connected with both Barbara and Kent....could not be happier we chose them to help guide us into married life!
The group classes were fine, but there were definitely moments when my fiance and I turned to each other with our brows raised...Let's just say Barbara is VERY opinionated with lit...
tle room for open-mindedness when it comes to any other viewpoint that is slightly different than hers. Our 1:1 session is what sealed the deal for this 2 star review. When you go to couples therapy, you want the therapist to be solution oriented, non-judgmental, and not take the side of one person or the other. This created a very awkward situation for my fiance and I. It appears there are a ton of other therapists in the Minneapolis area. If I were to do this all over again we would go a different route. Perhaps Barbara is right for certain people, but definitely not for us.
My fiancé and I attended the group sessions and just finished our one on two session last night. I cannot express how much we LOVED the experience. We found out more about ourselve...
s and our own roles in the relationship, the good and the bad - and how to work on those bad things! Highly recommend.
This was a great option for my fiancé and I. The classes were interesting and Barbara and Keith knew their stuff. It was affordable compared to other non-specific-church counselin...
g and helped my fiancé and I find new ways to tackle our problems.
Our therapist, Barbara, was so professional. She really taught us a lot about ourselves, and us as a couple. It was a great experience and well worth the money for the private sess...
ions! I would definitely recommend this program for any premarital couple.
Both my fiancé and I were a bit skeptical about premarital counseling – we’ve been together 10-yrs what could we possibly learn? We were pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable and a...
pplicable the classes were. Not only did we learn a lot about ourselves and our relations but we were given strategies to help improve communication and conflict resolution. This was by far the best thing we’ve done for our relationship!
I was somewhat skeptical to what could be achieved in these sessions as I understood them. My fiance and I have known each other 22 years and have been best friends most of that t...
ime. We know everything about each other. Barbara's approach helped to open our minds to new ideas, concepts and tools that we'll use every day. Whether it's listening, empathy, conflict resolution or being intentional about spending quality time with each other, taking a moment to think about how we can succeed in our marriage was well worth the time and investment. We even enjoyed doing our homework together!
We loved taking part in this premarital class! Barbara did a phenomenal job making us feel comfortable and open to discuss the dynamics of our relationship . It was eye opening to ...
learn so much about why we are how we are and allowed us to understand more about our relationship and each other, while teaching us tools to strengthen our relationship. It was laid back and non-denominational, making opening up easy! This is definitely one part of our wedding process that we enjoyed most, so much that we are hoping to continue with Barbara by "checking-in" multiple times a year in the future.
Rock Your Relationship was absolutely amazing! We had such a blast learning about current relationships and ourselves. On top of that we had Kent officiate our wedding since we had...
such a great experience at Rock Your Relationship. We received so many compliments on how Kent performed during our ceremony. They truly deserve to be the best of the best at the Knot!
We were so impressed with Barbara and Rock Your Relationship's premarital counseling course! We signed up to take advantage of the marriage license discount and we figured, "why no...
t?" We thought it would be nice to make sure we were as prepared as possible for marriage and make sure we were dotting our i's and crossing our t's. RYR's course turned out to be not only unbelievably informative and positive, but it was also very enjoyable. We learned things that we didn't even know we didn't know about communication, family styles, and so much more. We recommend everyone - single, dating, engaged, married, or separated - meet with Barbara!
This was the best thing we did before getting married!!! Barb is amazing and very experienced. I was so grateful we found Barb and felt the experience of working with a licensed ...
therapist was far beyond more useful than the average premarital counseling. Barb took premarital counseling to the next level!
We also had Kent officiate our wedding and he was amazing! We loved the chance to build a relationship with Kent through RYR premarital counseling and made our sermon that much more precious. Kent was flexible and easy to work with. His experience definitely showed at our wedding ceremony. We couldn't be happier with our experience with Barb and Kent!!
Highly recommended, led to conversations that are important to have before marriage and left us with skills to solve issues that arise.
Barbara was so great! She really was the perfect choice for our premarital course. We really valued the time we could take out of our day to focus on our relationship, and have to...
ols we can continue to apply going forward. There are several options for completing the course, but we opted for the personal sessions --it was so nice to have the conversations tailored specifically towards our situation! The homework in between sessions always felt doable, and it was a lot of fun to dig into the prepare-enrich evaluation during the last class. I definitely recommend, especially if you don't know where else to look -- her prices are affordable, her schedule is flexible, and she has a nonjudgemental view on things. Thanks for 4 fun sessions, Barbara! We know where we'll go if we need relationship counseling again in the future.
We did private premarital counseling with Barbara and she was excellent! She was non judgemental, direct and brought up practical solutions to our every day problems. My fiance was...
a little aprehensive that she would be more biased towards the female side of most issues, but she was understanding and fair of both sides. We’d highly recommend her, based off of her experience and personality!
Barbara, our counselor, was excellent. Rock your relationship is well priced, flexbible with your schedule, and has great morals that help guide the relationship. Highly Recommende...
d.
In all of the craziness that today's weddings become, my fiance' and I thoroughly enjoyed laying a more solid foundation from which to spend our lives together. Barbara did a grea...
t job communicating where we were at and how- in realistic actions- we could become in a more fulfilling and healthy relationship.
We enjoyed the group setting and the information was relevant.
My husband and I completed Rock Your Relationship Premarital Counseling before our October 2017 wedding. The information we received during our group sessions allowed us to see we ...
had similar experiences and issues to other couples. We also were given strategies on how to better communicate with each other and handle conflict management. After taking an individual assessment, we had a much better idea of what we needed to work on as a couple.
We really enjoyed our sessions with Barbara and the conversations they sparked for the two of us. She covers a lot of material and gives you an in-depth look at how to keep your re...
lationship going strong!
My boyfriend and I are not yet engaged and I would suggest this class for all couples considering marriage! Though some topics were not applicable to us yet, we were able to get a ...
good idea on how to handle many of the things life will throw at us. This class encouraged conversation that couples forget to talk about before marriage, and having these tools will definitely make for a happier and healthier relationship. From the perspective of a not yet engaged couple, I would encourage all couples to be proactive and start having these conversations earlier! It made us only that much more excited to be engaged and start our life together :) Both Barbara and her husband were a joy to work with!
We really enjoyed our premarital counseling sessions! Barbara was kind, and really great at making us feel comfortable so we could open up about our relationship. While there are a...
lot of different costs associated with weddings, I cannot think of a better value for your dollar. We have improved our communication, and learned a lot about each other throughout our sessions.
Rock Your Relationship brought fun, enjoyment, and learning to what can sometimes be viewed as a boring or unnecessary time for soon to be married couples!
Love love love Barb and Kent they are the best duo! Barb really helped my husband and I to explore our relationship before our marriage and Kent did an absolutely amazing job on ou...
r ceremony! We loved every part of the ceremony! If you are looking for a premarital counselor or an officiant Barb and Kent are the duo you should look into!
Barbara and Kent were wonderful in teaching my (now) husband and I some important skills to improve our relationship. We learned about how each of us operates and with understandin...
g comes grace. Having a weekly class was valuable in order to truly learn. Thanks for the great class!
Barbara and Kent were amazing! They taught us how to really communicate through any situation. The group setting was great and we both had a blast!
I'm SO glad my fiance and I took the Rock your Relationship course. We learned new ways to face conflict, communicate, and show love to one another. I'm headed into our marriage kn...
owing we have the tools to build an amazing life together.
Rock Your Relationship Premarital was great. My fiance and I, truly enjoyed the class, and Barbara was fantastic. It was a great learning experience for the both of us! We would ...
recommend it to every couple before marriage!
We really enjoyed our conversations with Barbara. We learned a lot about each other and ourselves.
We chose to do private pre-marital sessions with Barbara and I am so glad we did! Barbara was wonderful and so easy to work with. My fiancé and I felt so comfortable with her and s...
he is so good at what she does. I would recommend her to any couple that is planning on getting married.
We really enjoyed our sessions with Barbara. She was extremely easy to talk and open up to. She provided us with wonderful tools to help make our relationship more successful. We ...
were very pleased with the work and topics covered. The package was very affordable and there were multiple options to choose from. We highly recommend Rock Your Relationship!
When my fiance first suggested RYR, I was skeptical because I thought our relationship didn't need any help. After taking a day to reflect (and consulting many of my married male f...
riends), I immediately changed my mind and couldn't wait to begin! I had originally been looking at these classes through a selfish lens. Once I changed that and began looking at it as adding tools to my arsenal that will benefit myself and our relationship, I felt much better and energized about attending.
Attention all men reading this, THIS IS A GREAT EXPERIENCE and a must if you plan to be with your partner forever! Do you feel at times that your feelings aren't being considered? Do you feel misunderstood or "get in trouble" often because of the way you made your partner feel? RYR will assist you both in learning how to move forward positively and effectively. Think of RYR as a translator. "I'm going out for beers with the boys" can help translate that into "I had a long week and just need some male camaraderie to de-stress," which most partners can understand.
You will receive a workbook but do not overlook this tool as "ugh, homework, are you serious?" THIS IS YOUR BREAD AND BUTTER to help communicate with your partner. Utilize it as needed -- trust me, it helps.
This was the most beneficial thing my fiancé & I could of done for our relationship. Barbara is very knowledgeable in counseling and was able to help us solve disagreements, but mo...
re importantly she helped us talk so we each felt heard and valued in the relationship. I would 100% recommend Barbara. I left each session feeling better about my relationship and fiancé. It also helped she always had great snacks!
Thank you for all your help Barbara, Rob & I really appreciate your recommendations!
We had a great experience with Rock Your Relationship marriage prep. Our class took place over the course of 3 Sunday evenings in Barbara & Kent's home with about 7 other couples. ...
The warm & welcoming environment that they created encouraged the open conversations that we had as a part of the course. We really enjoyed the group aspect of the class and getting to know the other couples - it was a nice reminder that we are not alone in some of the differences and challenges we face in our relationship. In terms of course topics, I especially liked the focus on communication, family systems of origin, and learning about negativity cycles. We also found the discussion on birth order to be interesting (and so very true!). Our private meeting with Barbara was a good way to review the different facets of our relationship and where we have room for improvement, as well as discuss a few of the more sensitive topics (finances, intimacy) not covered in class. The workbook provided is a good resource, and 'homework' assignments between course sessions were very manageable and helped prep for the next week's discussions. We are very happy with our decision to participate in this course, and our relationship has become stronger because of it!
I'll be the first one to say that this wasn't something I heard about from my fiance and was super excited about. The course moves quickly through 3 evenings and really helped the ...
two of us work through some challenges we'd built up during our time together. We worked with three other couples who were great and had similar challenges with one another...imagine that. Barbara is great and the course is a home run. Highly recommend!
Contact
10505 Wayzata Blvd, Minnetonka, MN
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