OurRelationship breaks the barriers to relationship support with a versatile and innovative experience platform

OurRelationship is an online marriage and relationship education program run by Dr. Brian Doss and his team at the University of Miami. Their mission is to break down the barriers for those seeking relationship help and provide them with effective intervention no matter where they are in the world. The three-phase program provides couples with tools to help them better understand and develop solutions to combat their biggest relationship problems. Launching in 2012, the platform offers both a self-guided version of the program and one that includes guidance from a qualified relationship coach to support the process.

The Challenge

To provide an inclusive and highly adaptable digital relationship therapy solution

Many couples struggle with relationship problems that have far-reaching effects on their mental and physical health. However, the majority of couples do not seek help for their relationship.  To reach more couples while maintaining the efficacy of traditional couple therapy, the University of Miami had to create a digital relationship intervention with four features.

1. The platform would need to integrate two front-facing accounts (one per partner) with a single backend interface to combine each partner’s data and feedback to customise recommendations for the couple’s next steps.
2. The solution would need to be capable of customising content to personalise the users’ journey based on whether couples are participating with or without their partner, the specific populations they belong to, and their specific relationship difficulties.
3. The couple’s coach would need visibility into the couple’s progress and key responses and a management interface to facilitate coaching calls.
4. The solution would need to be versatile and able to scale and grow as the need did. This included self-registration and other automation, social and interactive features for coaching sessions and feedback, and a personalised user experience.

Finally, the team wanted to partner with an all-in-one experience solution provider who could support their vision seamlessly, from platform development to content strategy support. Kineo and Totara were the answer.

The Solution

Making relationship support accessible through engagement.

The easy-to-use dashboard gives coaches instant access to their assigned couples’ evaluations and history, past sessions and activities, session scripts and notes, and their next steps. The platform’s notification function reminds couples of upcoming calls with coaches and required activities, and a built-in scheduler helps to create appointments effortlessly. This has proven to be highly effective in keeping couples motivated and engaged with the programs and addresses the inaccessibility of face-to-face therapy by offering support when couples need it most.

This is also a huge win for admin roles because self-registration and self-selection of their coach and scheduling enable the supporting team to serve more and different types of couples (e.g., military, same-sex, low-income).

Creating a unique, personalised couples’ journey on a platform built for the experience.

In terms of content and recommended activities, resources, and tips, the user experience and design of the course are personalised to each couple’s needs.

By building a program that is tailored to each couple’s journey, through easily customisable content, OurRelationship is able to improve engagement and completion results. As a result, overall feedback indicates that couples participating in the program together experience a high success rate.

Visibility and reporting from Totara also allow the admin users and coaches to obtain accurate insight into how they are progressing through the program. This helps admin users or coaches to refine the couple’s journey further and ensure the optimal impact of program material.

Built to scale and grow with demand.

Totara has given OurRelationship the ability to grow and expand, as the program gains traction and needs change. The flexible system allows OurRelationship to incorporate new features to enrich the participant experience, and to create multiple programs tailored to unique audiences – such as same-sex couples, military couples, or individuals participating alone.

The new mobile app now also enables OurRelationship to extend its reach even further by making the program even more inclusive, for those who do not have a personal computer or laptop at their disposal. This offers couples, individuals, and admin users full access to the system while on the go, anytime and anywhere.

Results

Statistically improved relational and mental wellness among participating couples

In a randomised controlled trial of 300 couples across the USA (compared to couples in a wait-list control group), those participating in the OurRelationship program showed statistically significant gains in several aspects of their relationship. What’s more, they also reported a marked reduction in individual mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety. This also had a knock-on effect on the families and children of the couples, who have also reported improvement in family life.

The results that the OurRelationship team have achieved has earnt them plenty of press coverage, including being featured in ScienceDirect

Based on these results, the research team was able to secure a five-year grant from the federal agency, Administration for Children and Families. OurRelationship now offers the innovative online relationship tool to approximately 2,500 low-income couples nationwide – at no cost.

• 10,000+ couples enrolled.
• 65-86% completion rate
• 94% satisfaction rate

“Using Totara as the foundation of the OurRelationship program has allowed us to continuously upgrade our services and make a difference in the lives of thousands of couples. Totara’s flexibility has allowed us to tailor our services to the specific needs of low-income couples, same-gender couples, military couples, and couples with cancer – with more adaptations on the way! ”

– Dr Brian Doss, Co-founder & President of OurRelationship; Professor of Psychology, University of Miami