Far away from the long St. Patrick's Day line at the Phyrst, 111½ E. Beaver Ave., and the crowd at Rec Hall this weekend, three couples decided to enrich their relationships.

A relationship enhancement seminar, held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and yesterday in Henderson Building East, aimed "to bring couples closer by giving them tools to deal with conflict," said Patricia Yoder, the seminar leader and assistant to the director of the Penn State Individual and Family Consultation Center in Beecher House on campus.

The seminar, sponsored by the center, was designed to help couples build more supportive and satisfying relationships and learn to deal with problems that arise from personal differences.

The program appeals less to couples facing major crises than to those, like LeeAnn and Bryan Stover from Spring Mills, simply looking to make things better, Yoder said.

Married for four years, the Stovers feared they wouldn't be able to afford the $200 cost per couple. But, after seeing a marriage counselor, "we wanted our communication skills to be concrete," LeeAnn Stover said.

Bryan, the personnel manager of Mellon Produce Company, 300 Shiloh Road, said, "The RE program is teaching us the importance of reflective listening." Reflective listening is a skill taught at the seminar to enforce listening by repeating the partner's idea.

Yoder, who has a master's degree in human studies from Penn State and eight years of experience in the program, talked about relationship dynamics -- the causes of problems or source of conflicts in relationships.

Mary Wojnas of Warren, N.J., said she and her husband are "going through a passage in life where our children are leaving. We've gained better communication skills in our relationship."

Conflicts sometimes occur because of the preconceived ideas about roles or behaviors expected by partners, Yoder said. And she said conflicts occur in any relationship.

"Disagreements do not mean that love is not there," she said. "Try to understand that managing conflict is a process. It's tedious. If it's a hot situation, you will see how important details become."

After an explanation and demonstration of a skill, such as expression and problem resolution, the couples went to different corners of the room and, sitting face to face with legs touching, began to discuss issues pertinent to their lives.

They addressed topics including weekend trips, spending money, communicating effectively, dividing and sharing household responsibilities, coping with careers and expressing affection and sexual needs.

The couples left with positive attitudes about what they learned.

LeeAnn said she learned better ways to deal with anger.

"We have learned good ways of working through our problems without yelling and screaming," she said.

Bryan said that even though his relationship with his wife was healthy before the seminar "this seminar gave us the extra tool we needed to problem solve."

The seminar has received national attention. An article in the February issue of Redbook magazine featured the seminar. And a Purdue University study of 8,000 couples found it to be the most powerful relationship enhancement program in the country.

The next seminars will take place May 4-5, June 8-9 and July 20-21.