Divorce is a Real Risk
Breaking up and going through a divorce is more common than ever. It become a quick, sometimes premature, solution when we are not feeling as happy as we’d like or as connected to our partners in our marriage. Starting your marriage off on the right foot can help you reduce your risk for divorce down the road. Premarital counseling can help you to learn the important communication skills that help keep people together through the inevitable rough patches in the life of a marriage.
Preparation Can Help You Stay Together
An excellent way to increase understanding and love between you and your partner and prepare for the ups and downs of what marriage can bring, is premarital counseling. Separation and divorce can be a distant idea when partners are not only in love with each other, but also have an awareness of how they align and how they may differ in their values and long-term needs.
What Makes a Marriage Last?
Marriage lasts when partners use communication skills to address conflicts while maintaining a connection, and also know how to solve all kinds of anticipated and unanticipated problems in years to come. Often in Premarital Counseling, the entire set of sessions is completed even before your wedding day, ensuring you are both ready to jump into your marriage with the tool you will need to succeed.
What is the Goal of Premarital Counseling?
The goal of Premarital Counseling is to engage in conversations about experiences that may arise in the relationship in the future, as well as teach valuable problem-solving ideas and communication skills for you both to use moving forward. Talking through important topics with an unbiased premarital counselor can help to bring out deeper feelings and ideas and lead to greater understanding of each other. Important topics covered in Premarital Counseling include:
- Financial styles and goals
- Parenting goals and family dreams
- Maintaining emotional and physical intimacy
- Values around religion, spirituality, philanthropy etc.
- Maintaining ties to your families of origin while establishing your own family identity
- Lifestyle desires, like time devoted to vacationing and play
- Values and dreams for your future together