Pre-Marital Counseling: Choosing Topics, "Fighting Fair" Before Marriage

Dating back to the 1960s, we can account for an increase in the number of divorces among couples in the Untied States. With the divorce rate continuing to increase, it is not uncommon, today, to find some adults involved in their third and fourth marriages. For many couples, when considering marriage, there is an overwhelming desire to avoid becoming part of the divorce statistics. As a result, many engaged couples are now considering premarital counseling as an important part of their engagement and pre-wedding plans.

Premarital counseling is a service that has been offered for many decades. While traditionally encouraged and connected to the association with a religious organization, there are some premarital counseling groups that are considering premarital counseling without this association to religion. Offering a range of services to engaged couples, premarital counseling, today, is designed to offer a combination approach to enrichment.

In premarital counseling, there are often a variety of services you can choose from. While some couples choose to focus on just one aspect of their relationship, there are other engaged couples who choose to become involved in all aspects of premarital counseling, hoping to decrease their risk for divorce after being married.

The options or topics for premarital counseling include, for most couples, the issues of communication and conflict resolution. Teaching couples to "fight fair", premarital counseling on this topic works to make communication and conflict productive, while avoiding destruction of intimacy and bonding. In addition to communication and conflict resolution, some engaged couples will choose premarital counseling topics on finance and money, intimacy and sex, and even address family dynamics and family planning.