Marriage Builders

Marriage Builders If you are new to Marriage Builders®, we strongly recommend that you begin your experience with our Basic Concepts page. Willard F. Harley, Jr., Ph.D.

It will help you understand why Marriage Builders® couples are so successful. https://www.marriagebuilders.com/basic-concepts.htm is best known as author of the internationally best selling book, His Needs, Her Needs: Building An Affair-proof Marriage. Over three million copies have been purchased, and it is available in twenty-two foreign translations. Dr. Harley earned a Ph.D. degree in psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1967 and has been a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in Minnesota since 1975. For the first ten years after earning his degree, he taught psychology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. During those years, he was also a frustrated part-time marriage counselor with little success in helping couples. In 1973 he discovered that he was not alone in his failure to save marriages -- almost everyone in the marital therapy profession were also failing. So he spent the next two years designing an entirely new approach (see How Dr. Harley Learned to Save Marriages). When his success rate skyrocketed in 1977, he resigned from his teaching position to counsel full-time. Over the next ten years his solo practice developed into the largest network of mental health clinics in Minnesota (thirty-two locations) with over one hundred psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors working with him to provide a full range of mental health services. He became the exclusive provider of mental health and chemical dependency services in ten counties, and had offices in other counties as well. One of his responsibilities was to write support materials for the clinical program he directed. He created over one hundred questionnaires and wrote numerous articles that were given to clients as part of their therapy. Among the materials he wrote was His Needs, Her Needs, which was first published in 1986. Although it was written to be a support text for his marriage counseling program, within three years it had become a national best-seller and a basic reference for marriage counselors throughout the nation. By 1988 he found himself spending almost all of his time administering his clinics, and very little time doing what he enjoyed most -- improving his marital therapy program. So he began turning his clinics over to the counselors who worked with him, and the ownership of his last clinic was transferred in 1993. Since then, he has written 19 more books and hundreds of articles. Dr. Harley continues to write, speak, and lead seminars throughout the US and Canada. For information regarding booking arrangements for his weekend seminar, "How to Fall in Love and Stay in Love," click this link for more information. Dr. and Mrs. Harley also host a daily one-hour call-in show, Marriage Builders Radio. It can be heard on radio stations and on the Internet. They have been married for 52 years and live in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. They have two adult children, who are now working with them as marriage coaches, and four grandchildren.

How to handle your husbands secret family and much more on this episode of Marriage Builders ® Radio on Spotify!  Episod...
12/29/2025

How to handle your husbands secret family and much more on this episode of Marriage Builders ® Radio on Spotify! Episode #1268

Listen now, link in the comments.

Should it be exposed to others, or kept secret?
12/22/2025

Should it be exposed to others, or kept secret?

Never do anything without an enthusiastic agreement between you and your spouse.
12/20/2025

Never do anything without an enthusiastic agreement between you and your spouse.

Healing after an affair: Dr. Harley's urgent advice to a traveling nurse and her husband on this episode of Marriage Bui...
12/20/2025

Healing after an affair: Dr. Harley's urgent advice to a traveling nurse and her husband on this episode of Marriage Builders® Radio.

Listen now on Spotify!

How would you feel if your spouse were to check your messages to see who you've been contacting, and what you've been sa...
12/18/2025

How would you feel if your spouse were to check your messages to see who you've been contacting, and what you've been saying?

Dr. Harley on the 'Renter vs. Buyer' marriage mentality.  Listen now to Marriage Builders® Radio on Spotify® Episdoe  #1...
12/17/2025

Dr. Harley on the 'Renter vs. Buyer' marriage mentality. Listen now to Marriage Builders® Radio on Spotify® Episdoe #1264

If your spouse has had an affair, and is now willing to reconcile, you're likely to ask yourself, how can I ever trust m...
12/16/2025

If your spouse has had an affair, and is now willing to reconcile, you're likely to ask yourself, how can I ever trust my spouse again?

Are there problems in your marriage that have been festering for years? Have you lost hope of ever resolving them becaus...
12/12/2025

Are there problems in your marriage that have been festering for years? Have you lost hope of ever resolving them because they are never discussed? Are you afraid to bring them up?

Address

White Bear Lake, MN
55110

Telephone

+16517628570

Website

https://marriagecoach.com/, https://open.spotify.com/show/3DmNCoUJKyrKa0EhCHyVYp

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Our Story

Willard F. Harley, Jr., Ph.D. is best known as author of the internationally best selling book, His Needs, Her Needs: Building An Affair-proof Marriage. Over three million copies have been purchased, and it is available in twenty-two foreign translations. Dr. Harley earned a Ph.D. degree in psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1967 and has been a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in Minnesota since 1975. For the first ten years after earning his degree, he taught psychology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. During those years, he was also a frustrated part-time marriage counselor with little success in helping couples. In 1973 he discovered that he was not alone in his failure to save marriages -- almost everyone in the marital therapy profession were also failing. So he spent the next two years designing an entirely new approach (see How Dr. Harley Learned to Save Marriages). When his success rate skyrocketed in 1977, he resigned from his teaching position to counsel full-time. Over the next ten years his solo practice developed into the largest network of mental health clinics in Minnesota (thirty-two locations) with over one hundred psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and chemical dependency counselors working with him to provide a full range of mental health services. He became the exclusive provider of mental health and chemical dependency services in ten counties, and had offices in other counties as well. One of his responsibilities was to write support materials for the clinical program he directed. He created over one hundred questionnaires and wrote numerous articles that were given to clients as part of their therapy. Among the materials he wrote was His Needs, Her Needs, which was first published in 1986. Although it was written to be a support text for his marriage counseling program, within three years it had become a national best-seller and a basic reference for marriage counselors throughout the nation. By 1988 he found himself spending almost all of his time administering his clinics, and very little time doing what he enjoyed most -- improving his marital therapy program. So he began turning his clinics over to the counselors who worked with him, and the ownership of his last clinic was transferred in 1993. Since then, he has written 19 more books and hundreds of articles. Dr. Harley continues to write, speak, and lead seminars throughout the US and Canada. For information regarding booking arrangements for his weekend seminar, "How to Fall in Love and Stay in Love," click this link for more information. Dr. and Mrs. Harley also host a daily one-hour call-in show, Marriage Builders Radio. It can be heard on radio stations and on the Internet. They have been married for 52 years and live in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. They have two adult children, who are now working with them as marriage coaches, and four grandchildren.