Smalley Institute

What Smalley Institute does

Smalley Institute is a privately held, faith-based relationship and trauma coaching organization operating since 1979, originally founded by Gary Smalley as a marriage seminar platform and now led by his son, Dr. Michael Smalley, who holds a Ph.D. in Psychology. The company serves individual consumers — primarily Christian couples and individuals seeking to repair relationships, recover from trauma, or address destructive behavioral patterns — through a portfolio of high-touch services and digital products. Its methodology integrates clinical psychology (DBT, CBT, Internal Family Systems) with Christian spiritual principles, positioning the institute at the intersection of faith-based coaching and evidence-informed therapeutic frameworks.

The product portfolio is delivered through a self-serve digital storefront hosted on Kajabi and via direct sales of coaching services. Core offerings include two-day in-person Smalley Marriage Intensives, a $697 four-hour virtual Marriage Breakthrough Experience with 30 days of text support and VIP group access, weekly live group coaching, and one-on-one private coaching with Michael and Reagan Smalley. Digital products include the 8-lesson Constant Course, the 31-day Transform Your Marriage devotional program, the $12 RISE 12-step Christ-centered recovery curriculum, a $17 Letting Go In Love nervous-system regulation course, and an audio book titled You're Not Crazy, You're Traumatized. The institute also operates the Smalley Sojourners recurring membership community, which delivers twice-weekly Google Meet sessions plus WhatsApp support and represents the company's only subscription revenue stream.

The business operates as a self-funded family enterprise with 11–50 employees, headquartered in Spring, Texas, with a contact office in Los Angeles, California. Customer acquisition is entirely direct-to-consumer, driven by a content marketing engine (blog articles published multiple times weekly, the Wounded Healer podcast, and an email newsletter) plus Calendly-driven free 30-minute consultations that qualify leads before purchase. Revenue is dominated by one-time purchases of courses and intensives, with subscription revenue from Sojourners and bespoke private coaching fees as smaller, higher-margin components, and no external investors or parent-company affiliations have been disclosed.

Name

Smalley Institute

Legal name

Smalley Institute

Website

https://smalleyinstitute.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Smalley Institute is a faith-based relationship and trauma coaching organization founded in 1979, serving Christian couples and individuals through marriage intensives, online courses, private coaching, and a recurring community membership built on trauma-informed and biblically-grounded methodology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Relationship Counseling Services

NAICS

Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers (621420), Other Individual and Family Services (624190)

SIC

Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Couples & Family Therapy Teletherapy Platforms (HLALAEAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Trauma-Informed Care & Crisis Response (School-Based) (EDAKAMAF), Family Engagement & Caregiver Support Programs (SEL/Mental Health) (EDAKAMAK)

Keywords

• Faith-based relationship coaching
• Marriage intensive programs
• Online relationship courses
• Trauma-informed counseling
• Christian marriage counseling

Headquarters

HQ city

Spring

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Marriage Intensives: One-time paid programs for couples including 4-hour virtual breakthrough sessions with Dr. Michael Smalley, 30 days text support, and VIP group access. Single program fee covers entire package.
2. Online Courses: Self-paced digital programs (RISE, Constant, devotionals) delivered via Kajabi platform. One-time purchase model with instant PDF/video access.
3. Personal Coaching: One-on-one coaching sessions with Reagan Smalley (M.A.) and Dr. Michael Smalley for trauma recovery, relationship coaching, and personal growth. Custom pricing based on client agreement.
4. Smalley Sojourners Community: Twice-weekly virtual coaching community with WhatsApp group, Google Meet sessions, and ongoing support. Subscription/membership model providing recurring revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Smalley Institute delivers faith-based relationship and trauma coaching through multi-day marriage intensives, online courses, individual coaching, and a recurring community membership. The organization integrates clinical psychology (DBT, CBT, IFS) with Christian principles to help couples and individuals heal relationships, resolve trauma, and build lasting connection. Offerings span both live intensive experiences and self-paced digital learning products.

Product overview

Smalley Institute is a faith-based relationship and trauma coaching organization offering a multi-product service portfolio centered on Dr. Michael Smalley's methodologies. The core offerings include marriage intensives (2-day in-person programs and 4-hour virtual Breakthrough Experiences), weekly live coaching sessions, and private individual coaching. These are complemented by online self-paced courses including the Constant Course (8-lesson marriage course), Transform Your Marriage in 31 Days devotional program, RISE 12-step recovery curriculum, and the Letting Go In Love course. The institute also offers a monthly membership community (Smalley Sojourners) with twice-weekly Google Meet sessions and WhatsApp support, plus individual trauma coaching by Reagan Smalley. Audio content includes the 'You're Not Crazy, You're Traumatized' audio book. All programs are built on trauma-informed, biblically-grounded principles targeting couples, individuals, and those in recovery from destructive patterns.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Constant: An 8-lesson online course about becoming a constant presence for one's family, integrating honest, biblical, and trauma-informed approaches
• The Wounded Healer Podcast
• RISE
• Marriage Breakthrough Experience

Products and services

• Smalley Marriage Intensives

Quantifiable outcome

• 87% success rate for marriage intensives
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Focus on the Family: Long-standing Christian family/marriage organization producing books, podcasts, counseling referrals and events. Comparable because it targets the same faith-based couples/families segment with relationship content and resources, but operates at a much larger scale as a non-profit ministry rather than a for-profit coaching practice.
• FamilyLife (a ministry of Cru): Cru's marriage and family ministry running the Weekend to Remember conferences, FamilyLife Today podcast, and marriage resources. Directly comparable as a faith-based marriage content/community organization serving the same Christian couples audience as Smalley's intensives and Sojourners.

Direct peers

• The Gottman Institute: Relationship research and therapy organization offering the Gottman Method, online couples therapy, training for therapists, and self-paced programs. Directly comparable because it sells evidence-based marriage intensives/workshops and digital relationship courses to the same couples/therapist buyer, but without the explicit Christian framing.
• Lasting: App-based marriage counseling and relationship health program offering self-paced courses and connection to therapists. Comparable self-serve digital marriage program targeting the same couples/individuals seeking private, at-home relationship improvement.
• Marriage365: Faith-based marriage ministry offering marriage retreats, intensives, coaching, and content for Christian couples. Closest direct peer — same faith-based marriage intensive format, same Christian couples buyer, and competing for the same Weekend-to-Remember-disenchanted audience.
• Regain: Online couples therapy platform matching users with licensed therapists for relationship counseling. Directly comparable virtual delivery model and couples buyer; differs by being secular, licensed therapy rather than faith-based coaching.
• Celebrate Recovery: Christ-centered 12-step recovery program running in thousands of churches, addressing hurts, habits and hang-ups. Directly comparable to Smalley's RISE program, which uses an explicitly 12-step Christ-centered framework — overlapping recovery/addiction buyer with faith-based curriculum.
• Pure Desire Ministries: Faith-based ministry focused on sexual integrity, addiction recovery and trauma healing with group programs and pastoral training. Overlaps with Smalley's trauma + signature-sins recovery positioning (RISE) and church partnership channel.
• SYMBIS (Prepare-Enrich): Couples assessment and marriage preparation program widely used by churches, pastors and premarital counselors. Comparable in selling to the same church/clergy channel and couples segment, though positioned earlier in the marriage lifecycle (premarital/early).

Emerging players

• HeartSync Ministries: Christian ministry offering inner-healing and trauma prayer ministry training to churches and leaders. Emerging peer with overlapping trauma-informed + Christian formation positioning, though smaller and more focused on ministry training than consumer coaching.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/TheSmalleyInstitute
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/smalley-institute

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Smalley Institute