Hello, you two love birds! Congratulations on your engagement! This is super exciting! We celebrate strong starts to happy marriages here at BeFree Counseling. Have you considered premarital counseling?

At BeFree, one of our favorite offerings is premarital counseling for engaged couples. We deeply enjoy watching our pre-married clients learn and grow through the process of premarital counseling. We are convinced that pre-marital counseling is the best way to begin creating the path to your “happily-ever-after” life. It’s fun and memorable to plan a wedding. And it’s critical to plan for your life together after the wedding!

2.  Do you have a premarital counseling curriculum you go through?

I do! Justin and I both use both Prepare-Enrich and the SYMBIS Assessment and find both to be helpful! There are differences between the two curriculums and both have valuable information to offer in premarital counseling sessions.

Prepare-Enrich has been around for 35 years. It is the leading relationship inventory and skill-building program. Prepare-Enrich is used in church and counseling settings nationally and internationally.  It is built on a solid research foundation and has been shown to significantly improves a couple’s relationship. Prepare-Enrich is custom tailored to a couple’s relationship and provides couple exercises to build their relationship skills.

The SYMBIS Assessment (SYMBIS stands for Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts) is a comprehensive marriage program designed specifically for today’s couples. SYMBIS incorporates ten more years of feedback, research, and professional experience. It has an updated look and feel so it is more eye-appealing and user friendly.

I’m not sure which is my favorite. I like both for different reasons. Some couples want to use both assessments. You can click the links above to check out the websites to learn more. We have found that it is also helpful to integrate resources from leading marriage experts including Les and Leslie Parrott,  The Gottman Institute, Patrick Carnes and Dave Ramsey.

3.  What topics do you cover in premarital counseling?

Effective premarital counseling should include topics such as Communication, Commitment, Conflict Management, Financial Management, Sex and Sexuality, Family of Origin, Spirituality, Relationship Roles, Goals, Boundaries, and Strength and Growth Areas. As you can see this is a lot to fit into 8 – 10 sessions. And don’t be surprised by the fact that I like to assigning homework. Nothing worth having comes without work!

4.  How often should we meet for premarital counseling?

I recommend weekly sessions. I also take into consideration your situation and decide on what works best with your schedule. Sometimes our work is structured around life (vacations, holidays, work schedules, budgets, etc.). I like to consider the wedding date and make sure we have plenty of time to complete our work well before the wedding day.

5.  How much is each premarital counseling session?

Couple’s sessions are 53 minutes in length and the fee is $140 per session. We know the wedding can be expensive and we don’t want you to cut yourself short in preparing for your marriage. That’s why we also offer sliding-scale fees. We have a limited number of those spots available. Please feel free to ask if we have sliding-scale spots available if that is something you need.

Each assessment I mentioned above costs $35 for the couple to complete online. Included in that price is a nice printed summary of the results if your assessment. Prepare-Enrich also offers a workbook which is included in the cost of therapy. The SYMBIS Assessment is nicely coupled with the Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts book and workbooks. These can be used along with the assessment but aren’t necessary.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I’d love to assist you as you prepare for marriage!

Photo Credit: Upsplash photos by Scott Webb