Who This Service Is For
Who Is Premarital Counseling For?
Premarital counseling is for engaged couples who want to enter marriage with greater clarity about one another and a stronger foundation for their future together.
You don't have to be struggling to benefit from premarital counseling. In fact, one of the best times to work on your relationship is before serious problems develop.
It can also be helpful for couples who already communicate well but want to be more intentional about preparing for marriage.
Topics Couples May Want to Explore
Premarital counseling can help couples talk intentionally about:
- Communication
- Conflict and disagreement
- Expectations about marriage
- Finances and financial decision-making
- Family roles and responsibilities
- Parenting and future family plans
- Family-of-origin influences
- Emotional and physical intimacy
- Sexual expectations
- Faith, spirituality, and values
- Boundaries with extended family
- Career and life goals
- Decision-making
- Household responsibilities
The Unspoken Need
You're probably not looking for someone to tell you whether you should get married.
You want to feel confident that you know one another, that you can navigate disagreement together, and that you have the tools to build a healthy marriage when life inevitably becomes difficult.
How We Help
Our Therapeutic Approach
I use Prepare/Enrich as a central tool in premarital counseling.
Prepare/Enrich gives couples a structured way to explore important areas of their relationship, identify strengths, and recognize areas where additional conversation or growth may be helpful.
The assessment isn't about passing or failing a relationship. It is a starting point for meaningful conversations.
My training in Emotionally Focused Therapy and Marriage and Family Therapy also gives me a relational framework for helping couples understand how their communication, emotions, histories, expectations, and patterns may affect their future marriage.
What a Session Looks Like
Premarital sessions are practical, conversational, and focused on helping you talk about things that matter.
We'll use the Prepare/Enrich process to identify strengths and growth areas, then use those areas as opportunities for deeper conversation. Depending on what emerges, we may work on communication, conflict, expectations, emotional connection, family dynamics, or other areas that are important to your relationship.
Expertise in Premarital Counseling
Premarital counseling fits naturally within a Marriage and Family Therapy practice because marriage is not simply a legal event—it is the beginning of a new relational system.
My goal is to help couples enter that system with greater awareness of themselves, one another, and the patterns they are bringing into the relationship.
Specific Issues We Address
Communication Before Marriage
Good communication isn't simply talking frequently or agreeing with one another. Premarital counseling helps couples learn how to express needs, listen well, handle difficult conversations, and remain connected when they disagree.
Conflict Resolution
Every married couple will experience conflict. The goal isn't to create a conflict-free marriage but to develop healthier ways of handling disagreement without allowing conflict to become destructive or distancing.
Expectations About Marriage
Couples often enter marriage with unspoken assumptions about roles, responsibilities, finances, family, intimacy, and what marriage should look like. Bringing those expectations into the open can prevent misunderstandings later.
Family & Parenting
Your families of origin influence how you understand marriage, conflict, money, affection, boundaries, and parenting. Premarital counseling creates space to discuss those influences and consider what you want to carry forward—and what you may want to do differently.
Intimacy & Sexual Expectations
Emotional and physical intimacy are important parts of marriage, but couples may enter marriage with different expectations or levels of comfort discussing them. Premarital counseling provides a respectful setting for beginning those conversations.
Faith, Values & Spirituality
For couples who consider faith or spirituality important, premarital counseling can provide space to discuss how those beliefs intersect with marriage, values, decision-making, family life, and conflict. Renew Relational Therapy is not a biblical or pastoral counseling practice, but clients are welcome to incorporate spirituality into the work if they want it to be part of the conversation.
Why Choose Renew Relational Therapy?
Premarital couples can leave counseling with:
- Greater confidence about the foundation they're building together.
- A clearer understanding of each other's expectations and needs.
- Better tools for handling conflict and difficult conversations.
- Greater awareness of strengths and potential areas of growth.
- More intentional conversations about money, family, intimacy, values, and future goals.
- A stronger sense that they can face future challenges as a team.
What to Expect
The First Session
We'll begin by getting to know you as a couple and discussing what you hope to gain from premarital counseling. We'll introduce the Prepare/Enrich process and establish the areas you'd most like to explore.
Following Sessions
Sessions will focus on the areas identified through your Prepare/Enrich assessment and your own goals for preparation. We may discuss communication, conflict, finances, intimacy, family dynamics, expectations, or other topics important to your future marriage.
How Long Are Sessions?
Premarital counseling sessions are 50 minutes.
How Do We Track Progress?
Rather than simply checking off topics, we'll consider whether your conversations are becoming more open, whether you have greater clarity about one another's expectations, and whether you feel better prepared to navigate the challenges of marriage together.
Insurance & Investment
Insurance
Premarital counseling is offered as a private-pay service and is not billed directly to insurance.
Prepare/Enrich Rate
$125 per 50-minute session.
