Making Couples Happy (ATOM Study Guide)

What are the secrets to a happy relationship? The ABC TV series Making Australia Happy proved that science can make individuals happy in just two months. Now, Making Couples Happy is raising the stakes. Can it also work for couples?

Over eight challenging and confronting weeks, four ordinary Australian couples embark on a journey to happiness and relationship fulfilment. The couples range in age from their twenties to fifties, and the issues they face include sex, intimacy, parenting and work/life balance. For some, it's their last chance before separation and divorce. They are guided by two experts – clinical psychologist John Aiken, and counsellor and sex therapist Desiree Spierings – and receive additional help from mind/body expert, Anna-Louise Bouvier.

Research shows that it's possible to reinvigorate even the unhappiest relationships in only two months. Through group sessions, interventions, and scientifically-proven techniques, the couples confront toxic communication styles, attempt to rekindle their attraction, break through emotional barriers that have impeded their relationships for decades, and learn surprising and confronting truths about their sex lives. Intimate, filmed counselling sessions track their progress and every two weeks, the couples are evaluated and scored to determine their happiness levels.

As long-buried resentments come to the surface, and entrenched behaviours are challenged, will the couples succeed in their goal of a happier relationship, or will some decide that true happiness lies apart from one another?

Making Couples Happy is a real and intimate portrait of the ups and downs of relationships, offering valuable advice for viewers about how to improve the happiness of their relationships.

Curriculum links

This study guide to accompany Making Couples Happy, a four-part documentary series by Heiress Films, has been written for middle and senior-secondary students. It provides information and suggestions for learning activities in Community and Family Studies, English, Health and Human Development, Media, Sociology, Psychology and curriculum projects exploring the idea of happiness within marriage and de facto relationships. Each episode has a running time of 57 minutes. Students are encouraged to analyse and discuss adult relationships and in particular to explore the complexities and complications of marriage, by drawing on the personal experiences of the couples featured in Making Couples Happy.