Recently engaged? Looking forward to your wedding?
Chances are, you and your partner are pretty optimistic about your relationship right now. You are about to embark on a new life together, and it’s natural to feel happy and excited about your future. Relationship counseling may be the farthest thing from your mind. After all, therapy is for couples who have problems, not for happy couples like you…right?
The statistics tell a different story. About half of all marriages end in divorce, and of couples who do stay married, only half consider themselves happy. Those are unsettling numbers, but they don’t stop many people from walking down the aisle. Most married couples start off believing they will beat the odds for one reason or another—they are madly in love, or they’ve known each other for years, or perhaps they have already been living together for years. Yet research shows that none of these factors—not even cohabitation—improves the odds of a happy marriage.
In fact, studies show that premarital counseling is the one thing you can do to greatly improve your chances of a successful marriage. No matter how happy you are right this minute, no matter how certain you are that your relationship will succeed, a few counseling sessions can help you start your marriage prepared, helping you develop strategies for a successful long-term relationship. Don’t make the same mistakes that so many other couples make. If your relationship is valuable to you and your partner, premarital counseling is an investment in your future—one that you can’t afford not to make.
Benefits of Premarital Counseling
• Reduces the chance of divorce by 30%
• Fosters healthy communication habits
• Heightens your attentiveness to your partner’s needs, hopes, and dreams
• Develops meaningful rituals that sustain and safeguard your friendship
• Facilitates open discussion about potential problems
• Repairs trust by addressing past arguments, misunderstandings, or injuries
• Provides strategies for managing conflict, tailored to your specific needs
• Offers a professional, unbiased assessment of your relationship with proven strategies for success