"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person."

~Mignon McLaughlin

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years." ~Simone Signoret

"Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand."

~Emily Kimbrough

"More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse."

~Doug Larson

"The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of."

~Blaise Pascal

"Love doesn't sit there like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all of the time, made new."

~Ursula K. Le Guin

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

~Robert Heinlein

"Without love, what are we worth? Eighty-nine cents! Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely."

~Laurence Marks

"The art of love... is largely the art of persistence."

~Albert Ellis

"The most critical factor in our ultimate happiness and success is the quality of our relationships. Since most relationships are less than creative, most can be improved upon."

~Wendy

Founder of Creative Relationship Center

Wendy Pegan, Founder and President

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The founder of the Creative Relationship Center, Ms. Pegan is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a family mediator. Over the years, she has specialized in helping post-divorce families successfully and effectively manage the difficult transitions that changing relationships bring. Wendy understands the stressors that can break couples apart, and sees her mission as doing what is in the best interest of children and their families, and keeping them strong for generations.

As a therapist for 25 years, Wendy enjoys working with many couples and families to improve their communications and collaboration skills. Due to its uniqueness as a "one stop shop," her Creative Relationship Center is often asked to mentor new counselors, as well as train on the benefits of "pre-mediation coaching" for attorneys and mediators. As a relationship coach, she enjoys working with couples in all areas of their relationship to help develop healthier, more intimate and more desired relationships.

Some of the highest-conflict family court cases in the area are referred to Wendy, who endeavors to help families learn to live with less stress from a divorce or separation. She works to mediate divorces peacefully, and help families move on with their lives in a creative and healing way without the aid of the courts. She sees stress and divorce as a deadly combination that can tear families apart for years, causing depression, anxiety and a host of other physical and emotional illnesses.

As a critical incident consultant and an HR Director, Wendy has trained corporations on the benefits of health & wellness, better communication and conflict management skills for use both in the workplace and at home. Currently training City of Buffalo employees, She believes that all organizations can greatly improve their bottom line by improving human capital growth and customer service through better conflict management and mediation skills.

Wendy holds a Masters in Counselor Education from Canisius College, and a BA in Psychology from Daemen College. She is a New York State Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), a Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC), and a member of the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC). She holds special certificates as a Trauma Specialist from the University of Buffalo's School of Social Work, a Critical Incident Stress Debriefer (CISD), and a rostered mediator for both the Unified Court System Supreme Court and the 8th District Family Court. She has served on the boards of KidsPeace National Centers for Kids in Crisis, the Anorexia Bulimia Buffalo Association (ABBA) and the YWCA in Niagara County. Wendy has also been a member of the American Red Cross Mental Health Disaster team, the American Counselors Association, the Association for Conflict Resolution, the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, and the New York State Dispute Resolution Association. She has served as a counselor for the Virginia Tech shooting crisis, and a Critical Incident Consultant for the local Dupont crisis. She is often called upon as the Relationship Expert on WBEN, and serves as a Relationship Coach with the WNY Collaborative Law Professionals. She is also the author of the upcoming book First You Breathe, and is the mother of 6 beautiful children, spanning over 20 years.