Brief Premarital Counseling

It is normal to wonder if you are really ready to make a life-long commitment. Brief couples counseling can help you feel more confident or identify the issues you might want to resolve before the wedding day. Here’s what you can expect from me if you come to me asking for premarital couples counseling:

  • A first session together where we talk about the history or your relationship. Common topics include:
    • How you fell in love
    • Recurring arguments if any
    • How you resolve conflict
  • A second and third session with each of you alone to help me get to know you better. This is a wide-ranging conversation about your family of origin, education and employment history, medical history, and more. This helps me identify what you bring to the marriage that helps and that might be a challenge.
  • In the fourth (through a sixth session if needed) where we review:
    • The strengths in your relationship
    • How to maximize and maintain your strengths
    • Any sources of current or potential conflict
    • How to manage sources of challenge
    • How your family of origin might affect how you behave as a partner
    • Developmental tasks your marriage is likely to face as it grows

If we identify some things that couples counseling can improve, we’ll discuss whether you want to do that couples counseling with me or someone else. If you want to do that work with me, we can discuss what that counseling would include and how long it might take.

I’m also happy to meet with one member of a couple for brief relationship discernment.

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