Branson business helps families to communicate

Gary Smalley, who has a master’s degree in pastoral care, said he set out to learn how to love and care for his family because he never had a mentor in his own parents.

“As I started to learn exciting information about how to stay in love and repair relational damage, I just had a deep desire to share what I was learning with others,” Smalley said.

The center reaches about 18,000 people annually through conferences around the country. Since founding the organization in 1979 in Waco, Texas, Smalley has presented more than 400 seminars on marriage and parenting, authored or co-authored 28 books with 6 million copies in circulation, produced seven video series and launched a radio show. He relocated to Branson in 1993.

Norma, Smalley’s wife, is president of Smalley Relationship Center and oversees day-to-day operations. Gary Smalley is CEO.

Gary Smalley originally worked as an assistant pastor in Waco in the 1970s and held weekend seminars on marriage. The seminars’ popularity grew, which encouraged Smalley to write his first two books: “If Only He Knew,” a marriage book for men, and “For Better or For Best,” a marriage book for women.

Smalley was encouraged by several people to conduct relationship seminars and write books exclusively, so he founded Smalley Relationship Center in 1979.

About the same time, a friend of Smalley’s was producing national commercials. He created a two-minute commercial that introduced Smalley’s first two books to a national audience. Over the course of a year, 100,000 sets were sold, which helped Smalley get his organization running.

The first two books written by Smalley have now sold more than a million copies each, and Smalley has written many more including “The Key To Your Child’s Heart,” a practical guide to parenting, and “Food and Love.”

Smalley Relationship Center is currently planning for sales of its latest book, “The DNA of Relationships.” Michael Smalley and his wife, Amy, have written “Don’t Date Naked,” a book on dating. Michael is Gary Smalley’s son.

Last October, the Smalley Relationship Center, which has a 14-member staff, split into three organizations: Smalley Relationship Center, which focuses on seminars, resources and the radio show, “Smalley Live!”; Relationship Center of the Ozarks, which provides counseling in Springfield and Branson; and Smalley Marriage Institute, which offers marriage intensives for those going through a marriage crisis.

Smalley Marriage Institute is run by Greg Smalley, Gary Smalley’s son, who has a doctorate in psychology, and Robert Paul, with whom Greg Smalley developed The Marriage and Couples Intensive Program. Greg Smalley and Paul offer marriage crisis counseling, conduct research and speak at events.

“They do two-day and four-day sessions with a couple or a group of couples,” said Terry Brown, the center’s marketing director. “It focuses on a couple in an emergency scenario. It’s very powerful because it’s so focused.”

Gary and Michael Smalley recently started “Smalley Live!” on Radio America. The show is aired by KMLC and KRZK in Branson from 2 to 4 p.m. Sundays.

Michael Smalley said the show “is kind of like a sensitive Dr. Laura. We are … just as poignant with our advice, but a little less brutal with the callers.”

The first four shows focused on how anger affects relationships. Other topics the Smalleys plan to discuss include forgiveness, personality differences, parenting skills and effective communication.

The show is formatted so that the public can call in with questions during the show’s first hour, and the Smalleys have a guest on during the second hour.

Smalley Relationship Center is preparing to launch a new seminar this fall called “The DNA of Relationships,” based on Smalley’s latest book. The seminar will teach principles like “personal responsibility for your feelings in all relationships, becoming completely empowered to productively create positive emotions, build an environment that is safe, where true closeness can take root and bloom,” Brown said.

Smalley said his organization wants to partner with 100,000 churches to train young people and adults to learn and apply the contents of “The DNA of Relationships.”

The center is asking participating churches to join a TV simulcast network so Smalley can “train them live 12 times per year, right in their own home church,” he said. The center also plans to recruit 10 mentor couples in each of the churches that will host small groups with other couples and singles to learn the concepts of the new book. The center is partnering with more than 20 national organizations to develop specific plans for recruiting the churches and for finding the best ways to teach its new concepts, Smalley said.

According to Smalley, his workshops and seminars work because they employ a method of teaching that helps people remember what he and Michael say.

“Emotional word pictures” use objects or stories so that “people feel what we’re teaching,” Smalley said.

Brown said one of Gary Smalley’s strengths, which his two sons share, is the fact that “they are very practical-oriented. They really hunt for what works, what principles are out there that really help people. I think that’s what has made the books and conferences helpful and popular.”