‘Counting On’: Duggar Couples Attend Marriage Retreat to Improve Their Relationships

The Duggar kids need some help navigating married life! In a new sneak peek at Tuesday night’s new episode of Counting On, five of the couples in the family travel to a marriage retreat, where shenanigans is likely to ensue.

A clip from the new episode shows the couples settling in to what will be some close quarters during their work. Some of them also opened up about what they hope to accomplish with their weekend of bonding and learning about married life.

“We’ve been married about 10 months now, and so coming to the marriage retreat…” Josiah Duggar said, before his wife Lauren interrupted and said, “We feel like babies.”

“What are we going to learn, what are we supposed to bring, what are we supposed to do,” he added. “It’s different than anything we’ve ever done.”

The clip then showed the clan getting a tour of their rooms during the visit, with one room set for two couples to stay in together. The guide suggested they wear “blindfolds” to sleep.

Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth were then asked what they hoped to get from the getaway.

“I’m hoping to learn a lot, just in every aspect of our marriage cause, I need a lot of work,” Joy-Anna said.

Austin also opened up and said he hopes they will learn to take their marriage off “autopilot.”

“Start actively investing into it,” he said. “You have to work at it, just like everything in life. You wanna get good at sports? It’s not just magically going to happen. I don’t think people are just magically great spouses.”

The clip then showed as the couples received their first lesson at the retreat from Kendra’s father Pastor Caldwell, regarding how to communicate as a couple and commitment.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar make an appearance during the clip, sharing their advice about communicating in a marriage.

“If you don’t communicate, you don’t have nothing,” Jim Bob said. The clip showed more of Pastor Caldwell sharing his tips about proper communication, as the couples opened up about their own struggles in their relationships.

“My tendency when we’re having a conflict… is, I will just be hurtful or whatever and then I’ll clam up, I’ll give the silent treatment, which is not right. I’ve been having to work on that. I need to communicate what I’m thinking and not just be like, ‘I give up.’”

Will the couples learn anything during the marriage retreat? Counting On airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.