Wedding Planning or Premarital Counseling?
Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to an exciting life with your partner in wedded bliss! While this journey may easily kick off with love and happiness, this ecstasy and delight may soon nosedive if proper plans are not set in place. Sure, you and your partner plan to live a long, healthy life, growing in strength as a team. But are you both equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills required to ensure the spark remains ignited long after the wedding ceremony is over?
Why is premarital counseling crucial to the success of your marriage journey? While wedding planning is important for the joy of the wedding ceremony, a couple that doesn’t plan for married life ahead of the wedding may experience difficulties maintaining love in the home. Premarital counseling prepares you, giving you the strength and ability to handle difficult and challenging situations with your mate. It gives you and your partner the skills needed to navigate through rough paths and continue to relive the wedding bliss for many years.
Is premarital counseling really worth it?
As individuals, we have 6 areas of wellness – emotional, physical, social, spiritual, intellectual, and financial. Knowing how to support your partner in each area of wellness is a big deal as it places you at great advantage for marriage. While the wedding preparations may be hectic and even tiring, it would be unwise to consider premarital counseling an unwanted distraction. In fact, doing so is the first sign of trouble in a marriage. It is the ideal antidote to potential difficult situations – and it helps you tackle issues with confidence and poise.
Today, many marriages end up in divorce – and studies have revealed that this unwelcome trend has become popular because many couples do not prepare for the challenges well ahead of the wedding. In fact, a study published by Scott Stanley, P.R. Amato, and Howard Markham from the University of Denver in 2006 discovered that premarital education decreases the rate of divorce by thirty percent. This figure is especially significant, given that about 50 percent of marriages end up in divorce.
Think for a moment: It is important for you to note that there is no correlation between the pizzazz of a wedding and the success of a marriage. Hence, it is only ideal that you are well prepared well ahead of a life in a partnership.
I work with couples in my practice, providing premarital counseling to would-be couples and too often I have seen partners who if they had been prepared with the adequate skills before marriage, their marriage would not be at the point of crises. It is an exciting service I provide towards an equally exciting beginning to a worthwhile marriage life. I look forward to working with you and your partner – to put the finishes required to keep the glow and spark of your marriage for many years in the future. Congratulations!
