What to Expect from Premarital Counseling
by Admin
Posted on 17-08-2023 04:44 PM
Premarital counseling may pose challenges for some individuals, and couples may initially avoid or dread counseling out of fear or anxiety over what issues may be revealed. Difficult topics or areas of significant concern may be raised in counseling sessions.
Some couples may be discussing their individual values and beliefs or ideal partnership roles for the first
time
. While bringing differences of opinion up for discussion may help some address and successfully resolve them in therapy, others may decide certain issues are irreconcilable and choose not to marry. Therapy offers participants a safe space to discuss concerns, but hearing a partner raise issues or express thoughts about the relationship and the role of both partners in that relationship may lead to hurt feelings or generate conflict.
Aug 16, 2021 there will be premarital questions that will be unique to you, your relationship, and your expectations of a marriage. However, the premarital counseling questions listed below will help you and your partner facilitate conversations about the big topics that may cause problems later on in the relationship if you are not clear about where your partner stands.
Given the high rates of divorce in this country, it’s increasingly common for couples to seek premarital counseling or coaching. Couples of all backgrounds invest in their futures by creating a strong foundation for their partnership as they communicate about their differences and shared goals, and working with a therapist in an open, neutral environment can help address critical issues before they escalate into conflict. Not to mention, all of us have encountered unrealistic expectations of marriage in film and tv. And this façade of “a perfect marriage” is further perpetuated by the comparison culture of #couplesgoals on social media.
While in graduate school, meredith hansen, psyd, watched as many of her peers fell in love and exchanged vows. But not long into their marriages, she noticed many of the couples didn't seem happy. "they weren't fully depressed, but they weren't as happy as you'd expect," she recalls. That observation led her to write her dissertation on women's expectations in the first year of marriage, and then to obtain additional training in relationship counseling. In 2009, she launched a couples-focused practice, including premarital counseling as one focus. "it seemed really important to me to help couples get set up and start off right in their marriages," says hansen.
Benefits of Premarital Counseling
One of the many benefits of working with marriage and family therapists that couples often overlook is that it may not only improve their ability to communicate and reduce conflict.
Therapy could also set the stage for both individuals to seek professional guidance if they experience relationship struggles later in their marriage. In one study, researchers determined that couples that worked with marriage and family therapists before marriage were more likely to request an appointment with mental health professionals or a marriage and family therapist if they had problems after marriage. Both couples and individuals in the relationship may reap the following benefits from participating in premarital counseling.
Savra says one of the most important benefits of premarital counseling is that it helps participants triple-check that their partner is the right one for them. "i feel quite passionate about premarital counseling, and the reason i say that is because i've seen so many married couples who come in with a variety of issues, whether they've been married for three or 25 years, and the consistent theme i see is that they didn't know how to vet each other in dating," she says. " while they were dating , during the engagement, they didn't know how to ask the difficult but important questions and have those difficult conversations , which is part of the reality of being married.