Wednesday 15 October 2014

How Premarital Counseling Can Benefit Couples Planning to Get Married

Premarital counseling can greatly benefit couples planning to take the next step-marriage. Also known as premarital preparation, this counseling is not the same as ‘therapy’. It’s often a lighthearted educational session that helps couples learn skills they may need in building a healthy, happy, and lasting married life.

If you are getting married soon, it definitely makes sense to attend a premarital counseling program. After all, more than half (50%+) of all marriages fail. But premarital counseling has been shown to help to reduce the incidence divorce by as much as a whopping 30%. For this reason alone, premarital counseling is worth going to.

A typical program covers seven relationship skills and areas of knowledge that help couples lay the foundation and maintain a successful, loving, and happy marriage. Premarital counseling sessions address these following seven areas:

•    Compatibility
•    Long-term goals
•    Expectations
•    Communication
•    Personalities (including families of origin)
•    Conflict resolution
•    Intimacy and sexuality

The biggest benefit of premarital counseling is that it allows couples to concretely identify and talk about their fears, beliefs, values, desires, needs, dreams, and other such issues they may have previously avoided or even denied. During a session, the couple is encouraged to talk about matters they never discussed before.

Premarital counseling is necessary in building a stronger foundation for a marriage, before it even takes place. It helps the couple anticipate and prepare for the possible conflicts and challenges that may arise.

The best time to go to attend a premarital counseling program is one year to six months before the planned date of the wedding. The earlier, the better. This way, any negative habits or unhealthy relationship patterns can be addressed well before the wedding, and well become established and hard to break.

No comments:

Post a Comment