When should you do premarital counseling?

In my training through the Gottman Institute and experience and research in the wedding industry, I have found a few answers to the question, “when should I do premarital counseling?”

Premarital counseling may provide benefits for your relationship at multiple stages.

• You’re single and ready to mingle… but want to take time to work on yourself, too. Do you want to get married some day? Do you want kids? How do you explore these inner considerations?

• You’re in a relationship and wondering if what you have will last. The scientific research behind the Gottman Institute provides clear indicators that predict the success of relationships with incredible accuracy.

• You’re engaged and wanting a check up on your relationship, your expectations for marriage and even tools to communicate through every day stress and even wedding planning.

• You’ve come back to earth after the honeymoon and maybe didn’t know that secular counseling was an option. It’s never too late to have an open conversation about your needs and dreams for your marriage.

Our approach is simple, in that you’re the main characters of your counseling. After initial assessment and questionnaires, I’ll guide you through our resources that help you foster a healthy relationship.

A few disclosures

• My goal is to make myself redundant by setting you up to support yourselves

• The present relationship is my core focus, I remain objective, professional and counseling is primarily dyadic— a conversation between you and your partner

• Our time together is practice and anything you bring with you (questions, grudges, traditions, lifestyles, spirituality, hopes etc) as a human may enter discussion

• Contra-indicators that may preclude us from working together: violent behaviors and domestic or child abuse, severe substance addictions.

• If you are seeking a licensed therapist, please see local options here