Premarital counseling is different from marriage counseling because it is typically proactive, or future-focused. Couples that are dating or engaged often begin counseling at the request of their pastor/officiant or because they want to give their future marriage a good opportunity for success. So if you’re seeking to build a healthy, long-lasting relationship with your partner, I want to help you in the process. Here are some tools I use with couples that are looking for counseling to help best prepare them for their life together.
Prepare-Enrich and SYMBIS
The PE is a great tool for helping couples identify areas of strength (agreement) and possible growth areas (disagreement) with respect to specific issues in relationships such as finances, roles, family and friends, communication, and conflict resolution.
The SYMBIS (Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts) is helpful in assessing how your personalities, habits, preferences, and backgrounds are likely to interact both positively and negatively in your relationships.
Both assessments can be taken online from your own home, and results are then sent to me to review and discuss with you in session.
These have an additional cost, but are well worth it! Traditional counseling may require several sessions to determine areas for exploration, whereas these tools can bring those to the surface immediately, saving you time and money while we hone right in on the target issues.