Premarital Counseling

Do You And Your Partner Want To Feel More Confident Going Into This New Chapter Of Your Life?

Have the two of you been feeling anxious before wedding day?
Are you hoping you can iron out and work through some of your differences?
Has the stress of planning for your wedding exposed new hangups in your relationship?

Maybe you and your fiancé or fiancée have hit some unexpected road bumps while preparing to tie the knot. Perhaps you simply want more support and guidance as you get ready to spend the rest of your lives together. You might wish you had someone who could help you discuss important topics like parenting, finances, family, faith, culture, and sex. You want to make sure all your bases are covered, so you may be considering premarital counseling.

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You May Be The Happiest You’ve Ever Been, But You Still Want To Grow As A Couple

If you’re reading this page, then congratulations—you’ve found your person! As wedding day approaches, you and your partner might be deeply excited and over the moon about your future together. Perhaps your relationship is already incredibly strong, but you want to be prepared for any challenges that arise down the road. Maybe you witnessed toxic patterns in key relationships growing up and you’re determined to do things differently. Or perhaps you’ve gotten another chance at love and now you’re remarrying, and you want to ensure that this marriage is the one that lasts.

At Sacred Ground Psychotherapy, we want to honor your happiness while giving you the skills and tools to build a loving and successful marriage. Our approach to premarital counseling can help you better understand your partner, form your own family culture, create healthy boundaries, and learn new skills for conflict resolution.

It's Normal For Couples To Experience Anxiety Before They Tie The Knot

Most couples have read the statistics—roughly half of all first marriages end in divorce, and the rate is much higher for second and third marriages. Additionally, many of them have witnessed separation and divorce in their families and communities. Yet the fact that so many marriages fail need not deter couples—in some ways, it can actually motivate

Yet no matter how prepared a couple is, there are usually unforeseen challenges that come up as they get ready for their wedding. New family dramas often enter the picture, especially as many families have different ideas about how marriage should be done. This is especially the case for couples who come from different cultural, ethnic, or religious backgrounds. Even if two people have a strong relationship, outside conflict in their families can shake the foundation that they’ve built.

Many Couples Struggle To Anticipate Major Challenges In Their Marriages

Oftentimes, couples seem to agree on all the main issues and see eye to eye before they get married. But if they haven’t faced anything truly life-changing together, it’s hard to know how their relationship will adjust. After all, when you’re preparing to spend the rest of your life with someone, you don’t know what you don’t know. You can’t anticipate every challenge before it happens, and you can’t guarantee that you’ll never change your mind about things years down the road.

What you can do, however, is build a strong foundation of understanding so that when disagreements or hardships arise, your marriage stays strong. By making clear your expectations, needs, and goals for your lives together, you can set your marriage up to thrive and work toward a life of shared meaning and purpose.

Premarital Counseling Can Help You Set Your Marriage Up For Success

At Sacred Ground Psychotherapy, we want to honor your happiness instead of undercutting it or tempering it. After all, we’re not here to rain on your parade. Our role is simply adding to your toolbox of skills so that you can continue experiencing happiness for the rest of your lives. Think of therapy like preparing for a big trip—we’re here to help you pack so that you can enjoy your trip without being stressed the whole time.

Our practice provides therapy for couples who are getting married for the first time as well as those who are remarrying. We are a Christian-catholic counseling practice, but we open our doors to premarital couples of any faith.

Our Goal For You

We’re here to help you experience deep emotional, physical, and spiritual connection in your marriage - now and for years to come!

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What To Expect In Premarital Counseling Sessions

We’ll give you and your significant other a space to navigate hard conversations about pain, longings, vulnerabilities, and core values. Our therapists are trained in both Prepare-and-Enrich, the global standard for premarital preparation, and Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT), which is often considered the gold standard of couples therapy.

Prepare-and-Enrich focuses on what you and your partner need to talk about to get success in your marriage, while EFT explores how to have those conversations. During the beginning of therapy, you and your partner will each fill out a Prepare-and-Enrich assessment that asks different questions about roles, expectations, and areas of growth and strength in your relationship. We may hold an individual session with each of you separately to discuss your results. When we resume meeting together again, we’ll dive into the work of EFT and focus on de-escalating conflict and increasing healthy communication.

Ultimately, we apply the leading research of couples counseling and marriage preparation so that you can experience more peace of mind before wedding day and enjoy a lifetime of love together. We want you to build a strong foundation of skills and resources that you can take with you as you navigate the ups and downs of life.

You May Have Some Questions About Premarital Counseling

Absolutely! We are happy to consult with anyone on your care team to support your journey to the altar and beyond. If we need to document your sessions for your priest or diocese, we would be more than happy to do so.
Every premarital couple is different and has different goals and needs for counseling, but for those simply looking to go through our Prepare and Enrich program, you can anticipate meeting for about six to eight sessions. For those looking to go beyond the premarital assessment program with a focus on building a strong foundation of deep intimacy, you may need closer to ten or more sessions.
We do not blame or take sides. We are here to make sense of the patterns in your relationship and help you learn to work as a team when difficult conversations come up. If the two of you find yourselves getting stuck, we’ll explore your hangups in a balanced and non-judgmental way, looking at what both of you can do to improve your situation instead of singling one of you out.