Why Most Couples Don't Need Premarital Counseling or Couples
Therapy
Premarital or couples
counseling, while helpful in its own way, usually doesn't provide
the same kind of intensive and comprehensive skill-building and
education as marriage prep. (Just as marriage prep doesn't provide
the more extensive exploration of individual problems and underlying
issues that longer-term counseling can.) The skill-building and
education are the key factors in long-term divorce prevention and
marriage success. Today's marriages need all the help they can get.
When premarital couples
run into normal compatibility and conflict issues they often turn
to couples counseling or therapy to find help. Couples don't realize
that the challenges they are running up against are a normal part
of relationship development. In most cases, what these couples really
need (at least for a start) is a quality, skill-based, premarital
education experience.
Concerned about privacy? Click to learn how a group
seminar can still be very private.
Click here for info on private premarital prep packages and consultations including phone options.
Some couples do decide
to do both marriage education and premarital or couples counseling.
Many couples who are considering private counseling find that MST
is a very helpful preliminary or adjunct approach. They can quickly
cover all the general issues, develop skills and get an overview
of their relationship profile in the seminar. Many couples discover
that MST gives them what they need to advance their relationship.
We encourage premarital
couples to complete group premarital education first because it
is the most effective means of providing comprehensive coverage
of marriage success issues and strategies. Couples who still feel
that they need more can then use this foundation to address more
specific or problem issues in their counseling. MST starts their
counseling on a fast track.
MST
premarital education is more appropriate for most couples than premarital
counseling. Here are some of the advantages:
•
A more comprehensive, structured, but flexible, approach to marriage
success skills and strategies.
• An educational
seminar setting where you’ll feel less "on the spot,"
more inspired and your relationship issues won’t seem like "problems.”
• Many couples discover that the relationship issues that worried
them are very normal and are shared by many other couples.
• More intensive experience that produces a 'high' of excitement;
complete in one weekend.
• Covers all the basic marriage prep, so you get an accelerated
start in any relationship counseling you want to pursue afterward.
•
Most couples, though, discover that it's not couples counseling
that they need: What they need are the strategies and tools to manage
the normal challenges that all couples encounter in their relationships
and marriages.
At a Marriage Success
Training seminar you'll learn the skills you need to manage your
compatibility issues, communicate more effectively and resolve conflicts
in a healthy way that will dramatically increase your intimacy.
You'll learn how to protect your relationship, including your sex
life, from being undermined by the normal issues and stresses that
eventually surface in any relationship.
Not all marriage preparation
is the same. While the benefits of premarital education are beginning
to become more widely known, most couples don’t yet understand that
a program like Marriage Success Training focuses on specific factors
that research has shown will boost a couple’s ability to succeed
in today's demanding marriages. Research shows that couples who
have skill-based marriage preparation are much happier and more
successful in the long run.
We do provide some private
consultation sessions for couples (generally after they have completed
an MST seminar, but sometimes for couples who haven't attended a
seminar).
Click here for info on private premarital prep packages and consultations including phone options.
Deciding whether to get or stay engaged?
Click here for more info.
Click
here to learn more about Marriage Success Training premarital education
seminars. MST helps couples handle the increased stress of the pre-wedding
period in a much more healthy way, so that they can use the pre-wedding
experience to deepen their intimacy--not stress their relationship--during
this special time. Click here to learn about the benefits of MST.
Copyright
2003 - 2005, Patricia S. & Gregory A. Kuhlman. You may copy
this article for non-commercial use provided that no changes are
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source citation are included.
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