Before getting married, it’s good to consider premarital counseling. Counseling aids you in better understanding your spouse and working through issues before moving forward with marriage. Below, I look at finding the best premarital counselor in San Diego and how your relationship can benefit by investing in it.
What is Premarital Counseling?
Premarital counseling is a type of couples counseling that prepares couples for marriage. The main reason for premarital counseling is to support partners while they explore key issues such as finances, sexual expectations, parenting, family of origin, lifestyle patterns, core values plus identifying areas of growth. All this can lay a foundation for a healthy marriage.
What are the types of Premarital counseling?
Couples can participate in different types of pre-marital counseling to help strengthen their relationship. Below are just a few options clients can choose from.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Emotionally focused therapy focuses primarily on improving the emotional closeness of couples by assessing and strengthening attachment styles and bonds. It centers on communication struggles between couples, how to understand one another better and get underneath the content of disagreements and getting to the root of problem. Its aim is to improve the bond between couples resulting in healthy relationships.
Prepare-Enrich Premarital Assessment
This widely used assessment focuses on a vast array of fundamental issues that could make or break couples. It’s an online assessment exploring areas such as communication, conflict resolution, finances, personality traits, family of origin, lifestyle habits and much more. The assessment results are given to clients and the therapist reviews the results during sessions giving each couple a broad snapshot of their strengths and limitations.
Gottman Technique
With this type of therapy, the counselor administers an assessment to you and your fiancé and then offers tools and communication techniques helping you tackle the causes of dispute. It aims to improve communication, intimacy, friendship and problem solving skills to enhance the quality of relationship.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Premarital Counselor
Consider keeping the following things in mind when choosing a premarital counselor:
Counseling experience
It’s important to choose a counselor who has experience in premarital therapy. Ideally, someone who shares candid feedback will help increase your odds of strengthening your relationship. A counselor with a strong background in couples therapy will help you navigate through the challenges couples go through and help you move through them.
Counseling cost
Before you and your partner enter into premarital therapy, it’s good to know the cost and methods of payment. This will help you arrange your finances before counseling and find the best counselor based on your budget. For instance, church premarital counselors often charge a small fee and sometimes offer their services for free. Insurance typically doesn’t over premarital counseling and there are a wide range of fees when choosing a therapist in private practice. Shop around!
Know the premarital counseling process
Normally premarital counselors have different ways of carrying out their counseling. The counselor should explain their methods, the number of sessions expected, content covered and any further information about the process. Knowing what to expect ahead of time should increase your confidence about the process.
Talk to your therapist about expectations
Couples should be direct with their therapist ahead of time about what they’re hoping to achieve through premarital counseling and have realistic expectations about the process after the discussion.
Counselor’s training and background
It’s helpful to conduct an inquiry on the training background of the premarital counselor you consider choosing. For instance, counselors who have undertaken premarital training will have knowledge specific to premarital counseling and should apply relevant methods, cover vital topics and offer evaluations thereby helping couples increase the value of their counseling experience.
Appointment convenience
It’s often helpful and convenient to choose a premarital counselor offering various days and times to choose for scheduling. This will enable couples to find days and times accommodating their own schedules. Also, knowing if both telehealth and in-office counseling are options is helpful.
Benefits of Premarital Counseling
Premarital counseling has several benefits including:
Strengthens communication among couples
Partners who engage in premarital and marriage counseling can learn how to communicate more effectively which promotes increased intimacy and understanding. When couples learn to become more transparent and open with one another, they lay more building blocks for a solid foundation contributing to a happy marriage. A stronger couple leads to stronger relationships both inside and outside the marriage.
It creates a forum to raise issues
Premarital counseling should create a safe space where partners can address underlying issues in their relationship that could otherwise lead to discord or separation in the future. Couples can discuss financial issues, the number of children to have, individual specific needs, and even prenuptial agreements. Raising issues before finalizing commitment can help couples create a strong foundation going into the marriage. Couples shouldn’t feel hesitant raising concerns with their therapist or fear addressing issues before progressing to married life.
Helps couples plan for the future
The best premarital counselors support couples in creating a vision for the future. They give feedback on matters that could impact their future and provides tools on how to plan ahead as a team. Premarital counseling should provide a forum where couples can express their individual and joint expectations for the future which helps pave the way to successful marriage.
Aids couples to discover new things about each other
Normally during premarital counseling, couples are asked many questions. Many Couples get to uncover new information about their partners through active listening and intentional questioning. In addition, a therapist should help create a comfortable environment to raise key issues that one partner may be unwilling to explore. When a therapist creates a safe space during premarital counseling, couples have the opportunity to share information they may conceal due to concerns about upsetting their partner.
Are you looking for a Premarital Counselor in San Diego? Contact my office today
If you’re looking to tie the knot and seeking the services of a premarital counselor in San Diego consider choosing a licensed marriage and family therapist because their training is specific to relationships. It’s also helpful if they’ve had training specific to premarital counseling. Premarital counseling will help prepare you and your spouse for the journey of marriage. You will be able to plan for the future and have the opportunity to discover new information about each other, develop a deeper connection and bond, and gather tools to resolve future issues.
I pride myself on providing some of the best counseling services in San Diego. I’ll work hard to create a comfortable space to talk openly and cover a wide range of issues during premarital counseling including communication and conflict resolution skills, compatibility issues, family of origin, financial differences and more. Call 619-318-1901 or use my online scheduler from my website to book an appointment.