Premarital Counseling

Are you doing pre-marital counseling through a religious institution? I wouldn't say there are necessarily "cons" to any kind of counseling prior to marriage, other than not being fully compatible with the counselor. I typically offer the idea, to my own brides and grooms, to seek a marriage counselor that gels with the two of them, even if that counselor outside the church (if finances allow, you can do both).

Most couples I've seen start a few months after engagement, or 6-8 months prior to the wedding (outside of church counseling--that usually has it's own timetable).

100% recommend. I also recommend secular counseling, with a licensed therapist. DH and I did that before we even got engaged, and our relationship went from very good to fantastic. It's been 2 years since we went, and we still use a lot of what we learned.

We also did precana, when we thought we were going to have a Catholic wedding. That went very poorly, partly because I'm not Christian and reacted badly to the faith-based model, partly because our weekend was terribly run, but it was also a group thing... and I didn't find that helpful.

So, choose your counseling type based on what you need/like.

I think it’s necessary and helpful for all couples. I wasn’t too sure about it at first but it is helpful. It helped us to identify any areas we needed to work on and the areas we are strong in. The counselor gave us good advice and tips on how to improve communication and understanding between us. I would definitely recommend premarital counseling to any couple religious setting or not. We started it about 6-8 months before our wedding date. But there’s no set timeline. You can do a very specific premarital course or sometimes even schedule individual sessions. The good thing is having that resource available even throughout our marriage.

I would definitely encourage marriage counseling! It is insightful and definitely puts things into perspective. Each month we covered a different topic which sparked new conversation for us.


Counseling made me feel even more connected to my FH. I would highly recommend it. I would also be very mindful and prayerful about who you choose to do the counseling with.
Hope that helps
Stac

Thanks guys !

We did 6 months of couple’s counseling (one weekly meeting) last fall, and our wedding date is 7/12/2021. My fiancé was initially hesitant after having bad experiences with counseling services, but it worked out. We enjoyed every minute of it... after a few sessions of getting to know the process. Wish we could have had more than an hour to sit and talk. Sometimes you start a topic and then realize time is almost up. I recommend it. We massively improved our communication and listening skills.

Check out the lasting app!


https://getlasting.com/
My fiancé and I really like it so far.