Frequently Asked Questions

Each course consists of 5 to 7 case studies.

For instance, the Married Love Course has 5 cases.

The Married Love Course is a foundational course. It concentrates on the most important husband-wife, mother-father, extended family relationship aspects which are fundamental to enriching a couple’s marriage and family.

The majority of the courses are designed according to the various stages of child development, going from infants to adolescents. The courses communicate the main academic frameworks and the basic habits that children learn at each stage. The Grandparents course deals with issues relevant to that role in the family.

All courses are structured on a four-step case study method:

First, individual case-study reading (This is by each parent individually; the cases are deceptively brief, about 2 to 3 pages long and take about 15 mins to read.);

Second, conversation about the case as a couple (20 to 30 mins);

Third, small group meeting (3 to 5 couples come together, e.g., on Zoom; 45 mins); and

Fourth, general session with an FEI expert moderator (around 20 couples come together physically or on Zoom; 90 mins).

This is the typical case study educational method found effective in achieving the goal of learning to analyze and discuss the facts, problems, and solutions of real cases, and to become adept at that in a family-enriching context. It is also summarized in this IFFD info-graphic.

Our FEI courses are designed for couples who wish to impart a balanced, rounded, whole-character education to their children and do this as best they can over their lifetimes while growing personally themselves in and through this as mothers and fathers, and as wives and husbands, and thus consciously putting themselves on life-pathways of enriching ever more their own married relationship.

These courses then are for those who seek to fulfil all they dream of for their family life, and who desire to draw on the deliberative and reflective experiences of other couples which these courses facilitate in a professional way. For such couples, FEI courses are a resource providing them with the tools, and associated training, that will help them achieve these goals.

The Case Study Method is a professional method of study found in business and law school classrooms. Family Enrichment Ireland uses it to centre on cases that are rooted in real life.

The objective is to mirror in family formation what happens in professional career formation.

We all seek professional training for our careers, so as to be better trained in our professions.

Family Enrichment Ireland believes parents can similarly benefit from professional training in parenting, and with its courses it seeks to provide just that.

With a focus on responsibility, freedom and love within marriage, our programs provide parents with the knowledge and tools to help them achieve stronger, healthier, happier families.

To get the full value of a course, we strongly recommend getting to all the case studies of a course you have signed up for. Normally this is the intention of all couples, but dynamic family and work pressures can make that challenging sometimes. It is to appreciate that best results and fruits of the course naturally flow when couples make all the sessions of their chosen course.

Normally no, but please check our FEI web page to see the course schedule. If the course you are looking for is not in the schedule, please contact us directly as planning for that specific course may be under way but not yet posted.

Family Enrichment Ireland (FEI) is the Irish satellite of the International Federation for Family Development (IFFD). It is a non-profit organisation affiliated to IFFD.

The International Federation for Family Development (IFFD) is a non-governmental, independent, and non-profit federation, whose primary mission is to support families through training.

IFFD has United Nations General Consultative Status, in particular with the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It also regularly organizes international congresses on the family. As it does through FEI in Ireland, it works in over 65 countries over the 5 continents with the collaboration of an extensive network of volunteers. IFFD is the largest international civil society organization devoted to family development.

Family Enrichment Ireland (FEI) uses an innovative approach to supporting parent education based on The Case Study Method. Pioneered by Harvard Business School, today many of the best university business schools employ this education technique especially in their postgraduate courses.

We take this method into the family context, with the educational vision that your marriage and your family is the most important business you have in hand. This vision may be seen in all our course offerings. Your most natural home-making and family-making aptitudes can benefit and develop from professional educational input in a way that respects your values and respects your family’s natural family discretion and intimacy.

Our courses serve to help you form, crystallise and evaluate your own ideas and opinions as to what is best for you, your marriage and your family life. ​They gives you an opportunity to think about what matters and how to build and strengthen your marriage from many practical perspectives. They provide you with helpful tools for this and support you with training in using those tools.

For further details on FEI’s case study methodology and what you can hope to take from it may be found here.