You have been in a relationship for a while. Now, you are thinking about taking the next step. Or, you are already engaged and have set a wedding date. But, you still want to be really sure you're begging your marriage with a strong foundation for a happy life together. You know the divorce rate is high. So, you want to be aware of some of the potential challenges you may face as you make this commitment. If this sounds familiar, your relationship could benefit from premarital counseling.
Premarital Counseling in Atlanta, GA Gives You A Chance to Begin Your Marriage in a Strong and Healthy Way
Premarital counseling is a great option for engaged couples. It can help you and your partner prepare for the life that you want to enjoy together. When preparing for marriage, it can highlight some of your strengths. In addition, it brings up challenges you may face as a couple and help you work through them before they cause major issues.
How Can Premarital Counseling Help?
Premarital counseling can give you the skills to improve communication and solve conflicts. These tools are essential for a happy married life. There are many challenges these skills can help with. This includes monetary values and issues, family challenges, and views on parenting and household responsibilities. Counseling can help couples who have children from a previous relationship. It can help you learn to co-parent create a smoother transition for everyone. We know that blending two families can be tough. Additionally, premarital counseling is also really helpful for couples where one or both partners have been divorced. Sometimes, the divorce causes baggage and fears that can be worked through so your next marriage will be successful and happy.
The Faith and Family Empowerment Approach to Premarital Counseling
In premarital counseling, we use the Prepare/ Enrich curriculum to work with engaged couples. You will be given a premarital assessment. Both partners will fill out. This will help us determine where you're at in your relationship. Next, we'll look at your areas of strength. Additionally, we'll talk about the challenges you may face in your relationship. As experienced marriage counselors, we will give you the tools to help you be successful in your marriage.
Topics Covered in Premarital Counseling
Poor communication:
Perhaps, you can’t tell your partner how you really think or feel. Or, you're not sure how they think or feel about certain issues. We will work on communication skills and conflict resolution skills. The goal is to begin to build a safe place where partners can be transparent with one another
Financial issues: shared taxes, bank accounts, and mortgages. All are huge stressors in a romantic relationship. Talking about money in a relationship can be tough. Premarital counseling can help you through the conversation. This includes discussing financial goals, creating budgets, and the meaning of money.
Conflict resolution:
Many couples do not have the skills to handle disagreements. Premarital counseling can help. Avoiding discussion of problems means that the problems not go away. Instead, they will get bigger over time. In premarital counseling, we will talk about things that make you unhappy so you can solve them before the wedding.
Role clarity:
Marital role patterns are deeply ingrained in us from our upbringing. So, it is important to clarify whether gender roles are flexible or traditional. And, we will discuss which partner provides for the family, or if you will both share the responsibilities.
Children:
Will you have kids? Who will take care of them? For example, will one partner stay home, or will the child be in daycare? Understand that parenting is one of the biggest challenges that couples face. Furthermore, discussing this in premarital counseling can help you make these decisions now so you don't have to stress about them later on.
Parenting:
What will discipline look like? What roles will each partner have? Understand that many couples parent like they were parented as children. So, it's important to know how you both were parented. We should also consider how we feel about it. This can be conscious acceptance or rejection of those values. Knowing this can help build a better home. In premarital counseling, we'll explore these factors.
Religion:
How will you manage your religious values? If you plan to raise children, consider different values. Especially if the partners have different religious orientations holidays. How will holidays be celebrated, especially if you have different religious beliefs?
Begin Premarital Counseling in Atlanta, GA
You don’t have to live with worry or doubt about whether or not your marriage will work. Premarital counseling can help you discover your strengths. And, it can give you the tools to build your marital intimacy. Our Norcross counseling clinic has caring marriage counselors that specialize in premarital counseling. To start your counseling journey, follow these simple steps:
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Contact us and request an appointment for premarital counseling
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Get to know your new marriage counselor.
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Start your life as a married with success
Other Mental Health Services at Faith and Family Empowerment
Premarital counseling isn’t the only service we offer at our therapy center in Norcross, GA. Currently, we're able to see individuals and couples through online therapy while our Norcross counseling clinic is closed. Services for individuals including anxiety therapy, depression counseling, grief counseling, and relationship counseling for one. We also provide marriage counseling, discernment counseling, and affair recovery. In addition, we provide group counseling and counseling for adoptive families. Contact our counseling center today to learn about the many ways we can help you and your family!