Premarital Counseling: Setting up for Success in Marriage

You have made the important and exciting decision to build a life together. Congratulations on your engagement! Is it time to consider Premarital Counseling?

What is Premarital Counseling?

It is a type of therapy designed to assist couples in laying a solid foundation in their relationship as they approach building a life together. This is accomplished by helping partners recognize strengths as well as areas of potential conflict in their relationship. Your couples therapist should teach you the skills you need to address key aspects of maintaining a healthy and fulfilling partnership. Couples will express their individual needs, inclinations, and assumptions about marriage and figure out how to build a common ground out of differences that may arise.

While you're arranging your wedding, would you say you are likewise planning for your marriage? A survey produced by the Journal of Family Psychology showed that couples with premarital training reported more significant levels of marital satisfaction and a 30% decrease in the probability of separation over five years. That being said, expert premarital counseling can certainly equip you and your partner with the necessary tools to have a solid, wonderful relationship. With the right education, you can have real hope for a long, satisfying marriage. 

The Benefits of Marriage Counseling

Improving conflict abilities. 

It is not difficult to get emotional when talking about heavy-duty subjects like finances, sex, and family planning. However these topics are imperative to discuss before and throughout a marriage. An expert marriage counselor can help guide the discussion. They are trained to keep you and your partner focused on what's truly important, and will help you define shared goals, such as resolving conflict in a mutually respectful and efficient way.

If you have experienced some significant quarrels, then you know how difficult it can be to maintain a calm and caring conversation. It is often easy to resort to unhealthy forms of communication, such as criticism, shutting down, name-calling, or shouting. Premarital counseling will help you build habits of better communication when difficult issues arise that will leave you both feeling heard, respected, and cared for. It will also teach you to recognize opportunities for better communication. All of us can learn more productive ways to disagree. With the right education, anyone can grow better conflict skills, resulting in better intimacy and managing goals.

Getting realistic assumptions regarding timing.

When you've decided to get married, you need to talk about a lot of things. What are your personal dreams? Your shared dreams? How are they similar? Or different?

Conversations about your future are essential, strengthening, and foundational components of establishing connection and trust. These necessary, sometimes tricky topics may also spark a sense of excitement for your future together. Being transparent with one another about general timeline expectations for significant life events will take away the potential for discord. For example, you may have different ideas about if and when to have children. If you discuss this with superior communication skills and come to an agreement that having children is off the table for a certain amount of time, you may avoid unnecessary frustration down the road. Many couples later come to our couples therapy office when they never discussed such things during their engagement. One person is ready to begin having children while the other isn't quite ready. Of course, this applies to many other significant life steps and choices. 

You will get real about the cash. 

Most of us realize that it isn't money, but rather how money is dealt with, that has the power to destroy relationships. So to avoid future issues, you'll spread out all your money considerations in premarital counseling. It is incredibly personal, and each one will have a different relationship to the ways finances are handled in the marriage.

Avoiding deadly resentments.

Premarital counseling offers the opportunity to clear the air about feelings you've been unable to share through your relationship this far. It is time to begin a life together from a place of honesty and authenticity, sharing all things with the person you love. 

Destroying fears about marriage. 

Coming from a divorced or dysfunctional family may cause some to have hesitation or fear approaching their own marriage. Premarital counseling can give you the chance to address your past and break the cycle. 

Building Intimacy, Connection, and Shared Dreams with the One You Love.

If you are considering Premarital Counseling, you have likely decided that you have something special, and you want to protect it. If your relationship is precious to you, you love each other and want to commit your life to one another. Beyond the work of addressing conflict, and strengthening your relationship by having difficult conversations, the most rewarding take away will be your time together. Investing in your marriage, and in turn, your fiance, is a beautiful gift you give, both to your future spouse and to yourself. It is saying, "This relationship is important to us. And it is valuable to know one another well and fully as we approach the rest of our lives together so that we may best love one another. While celebrating the good times to come, and by equipping ourselves with the tools necessary to handle the difficult times with grace and compassion. Our future matters. Our relationship matters." 

Here are a few steps to make the most out of your time together in session:

• Acknowledge that it will challenge now and again.

• Keep in mind that the objective isn't to "win."

• Keep your sessions private.

• Offer thanks to your partner.

Taking the Next Step And Schedule A Free First Session

If you are ready to take the step and schedule a free first session, please reach out to our Client Care Coordinator at 678-999-3390. Likewise, if you or if you have questions about how premarital counseling could work for you, please call us. Many of our frequently asked questions about couples counseling in Atlanta, Georgia are also available on our website below.