If you are young couple that is engaged and planning to marry soon, you need to know what you are facing. Marriage is tough; otherwise the number of divorces wouldn’t be so high. Premartial counseling can help you and your fiancé deal with issues in your relationship and the stresses of being married.
Marriage is completely different from dating or even living together. The dynamics shift. Premarital counseling can help you and your fiancé even if you’ve been perfectly happy and work well together.
The counselor can help facilitate a conversation about children and financial matters that can be hard to navigate. Do you know how you want to raise your children? Do you want children? What about schooling? Where would you like to be in five years?
We never know what can happen in the future. And there’s no way to prepare for everything. But premarital counseling can raise awareness of the ups and downs of marriage. The first part of a relationship can whizz by when we are still exploring our partners – physically and psychologically. Problems can rise to the surface once the waters have calmed down.
Premarital counseling will help you finding the right ways to keep your marriage going. You will learn how best to communicate, how to share concerns and issues with your partner and learn how to avoid conflicts.
Some of us are also scared of getting married because of the enormous responsibilities that come along with marriages. Premarital counseling also helps us allay those fears and start looking at marriage in a positive and confident manner. Marriage is a sacred relationship and we must be committed towards it. It may turn out that you find you are not ready yet for that step. The soul searching and tough conversations that spring form premarital counseling will be hard, and possibly painful. But so is divorce.
You may have all the confidence in the world; you won’t end up divorced because the two of you are really in love, and always will be. That’s great! But that doesn’t mean you won’t have to work at your marriage. Or perhaps marriage doesn’t faze you because you consider divorce an easy out. If that’s the case, are you sure you should be getting married? Marriage is a big deal, as is divorce. It’s messier than a breakup and shouldn’t be seen as anything but a last resort.
You can see a range of people for premarital counseling – a spiritual leader, therapists or even family members and friends who you trust. What matters is that you are able to share your anticipations and fears and have someone listen to you and give you solutions and advices wherever needed. You can have answers to questions on communication, sexuality, parenting and even finance. It is a wonderful opportunity for you to prepare yourself for that big step in life
