Premarital Counseling

Premarital Counseling

She said “yes”, congratulations! Now, the work begins. Preparing for marriage or a lifetime commitment is a serious task. It is lovely that you have found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. In the moment, it can feel like a fairytale or a beautiful dream. The reality is marriage is beautiful. The fact is that when two people join their lives, there will be ups and downs.
In addition to stress around planning a wedding, many other stressors will occur as you prepare for your nuptials and throughout your marriage. At The Well Woman, we want to equip our engaged couples with the tools and expectations to propel them into a healthy marriage and lasting relationship. We offer premarital counseling, as well as couples counseling, at The Well Woman.
Preparing couples for marriage through premarital counseling has been found to reduce the rate of divorce by 30%. At The Well Woman, We utilize the Prepare-Enrich curriculum to facilitate premarital counseling with our couples. Prepare-Enrich is a research-based curriculum with over 35 years of research and experience providing couples with premarital counseling. This curriculum has been used with over 4 million couples and has been found to strengthen relationships. Prepare-Enrich focuses on six goals for couples:
  • Explore strength and growth areas.
  • Strengthen communication skills
  • Identify and manage major stressors
  • Resolve conflicts using the Ten-Step Model
  • Develop a more balanced relationship using the Couple and Family Maps
  • Understand personality differences and maximize teamwork
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When using Prepare-Enrich, couples first engage in an online assessment. The online evaluation identifies strengths and growth areas in a relationship and primes the couple for relevant and revealing discussion. The results and feedback from the evaluation are discussed with the couple, and relationship skill building around communication and conflict resolution, closeness and flexibility, personality compatibility, and stress management is developed.
During subsequent counseling sessions, the focus will be on core skills that assess the couple’s relationship health, including conflict resolution, financial management, family and friends, sexuality and affection, and spiritual beliefs. Each person’s personality is also assessed to help the couple better understand interpersonal patterns. Relationship dynamics such as partner dominance, avoidance, self-confidence, and assertiveness are evaluated and discussed. Individual stress levels are assessed, as we know we bring our stressors into the relationship. Satisfaction in the relationship and commitment to the relationship are explored as well.
Couples benefit from premarital counseling as it creates curiosity about how their partner responded to the items, stimulating dialogue about essential relationship topics and encouraging the couple to explore each other‘s world. Premarital counseling increases awareness about an individual and their partner. Assessment results help couples apply concepts and skills relevant to their unique relationship, increasing relationship skills and satisfaction. Prepare-Enrich premarital counseling is facilitated by a trained and certified Prepare-Enrich facilitator at The Well Woman. If you are ready to give your relationship an excellent head start, there are many ways to engage in sessions. We have the following available:
In-person or virtual (One couple with one therapist) 2-Day Group Workshop (5 couples max) Mini-Marathon (3-hour sessions, one couple)

Congratulations again on initiating a lifetime commitment. We’d be honored to walk alongside you as you prepare for your nuptials. If you would like to begin your premarital journey by becoming more aware of yourself and your partner, creating healthy expectations for marriage, improving effective communication, and managing and resolving conflict, give us a call at 404-618-1040 and let one of our skilled clinicians prepare and enrich you and your relationship. 

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