5 Benefits of Premarital Counseling
Preparing to get married is a time filled with many different emotions.
Engaged couples likely feel excited, hopeful, and maybe anxious about starting a new chapter in their lives. Premarital counseling can be a helpful tool during the engagement period, growing couples’ excitement, clearing up expectations, and helping them feel even more connected before becoming husband and wife.
There are many benefits of premarital counseling, including the five listed below:
1. Having hard conversations you wouldn’t typically have.
Like any kind of therapy, you will find a safe space to discuss challenging topics in premarital counseling. Your therapist will be educated in the critical areas to discuss before you decide on a life-long commitment. This space will also allow you to bring up challenging topics with your partner that you might feel uncomfortable discussing out of the blue. Hard conversations may be scary initially, but they will help you grow deeper in your relationship.
2. Learning if you are compatible for marriage.
Therapy can offer many tools for engaged couples to learn how to flourish as married couples. The therapist will get to know both of you and tailor these tools to your specific needs. They might offer personality tests, coping mechanisms, and communication skills that you can incorporate into your marriage. You can also get to know your partner better and develop realistic expectations for your future together.
3. Exposing areas that both people in the relationship can improve upon.
Sometimes, in a relationship, it can be hard to see areas of improvement. Your therapist can help you communicate with each other to find these areas and then help you set goals to help mend any brokenness in your relationship. As you work towards these goals, you can start to build an even healthier functioning relationship where you can support and give grace to each other.
4. Having an outside voice from an educated professional.
Couples can often work through many problems independently, but sometimes, having an outside voice can provide insight into a situation you might not see on your own. Including a professional who has studied relationships in your conversations can help both partners find a compromise and see things from different perspectives. A non-biased, educated voice can always be helpful, especially during conflict!
5. Developing a more intimate relationship.
One of the most beautiful parts of premarital counseling is that through it all, you can grow deeper in love with your partner and develop an even more intimate relationship. You can learn how to stay committed to each other and communicate effectively through counseling sessions. These sessions also require vulnerability with each other, which can produce a greater sense of trust. You will likely leave these sessions with more love for each other than when you started.
If you are considering premarital counseling but don’t know where to start, visit Novo Life’s website to book a session or sign up for a free 15-minute consultation call! We love using the SYMBIS (Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts) tool, which can help couples prepare for marriage by taking the test and interpreting the results with their therapist.