Premarital Therapy

With the current divorce rate around 60% for first marriages, couples who are planning marriage can greatly benefit from developing healthy patterns of relating before problems occur in their relationship. In an attempt to help couples have a successful marriage, many churches now require couples to attend premarital counseling before they will perform the ceremony.

Changing Patterns offers six sessions designed to help couples build a solid foundation for their marriage. Topics include:

• Explore relationship strengths and growth areas. Learn to appreciate differences as opportunities to complement one another's strengths.
• Review relational patterns from the family you grew up in and discuss how these patterns influence your communication and working together during difficult times.
• Identify potential areas of "gridlock" before they turn into major problems, i.e. managing finances, how leisure time is spent, relating to in-laws, sexual expectations.
• Spiritual beliefs and level of involvement in your place of worship.
• Explore roles and responsibilities, including children, parenting, household chores.

After the first session, couples take one of the Prepare/Enrich Inventories. This inventory identifies issues unique to their relationship. Prepare/Enrich Inventories have a 93% accuracy rate in predicting marital distress, and a documented 50% success rate in reducing relationship breakups and divorce in the early years of marriage. Couples typically attend sessions every other week a few months before their wedding date.