It may be difficult for a young couple to consider marriage counseling when they haven’t even walked down the aisle yet. The misconception about marriage counseling is that it is only for couples who have been married for years and are experiencing significant issues with their relationship. The truth is that new couples who have decided to get married can benefit from pre-marital counseling.
A marriage counselor can act like a trusted voice who understands and knows the challenges that the young couple is about to face. While love is a very important part to a relationship, it can also be beneficial to get an experienced perspective on marital challenges. A couple’s relationship can be strengthened when they get advice on how to meet those challenges head-on and resolve them before they become larger issues.
Pre-Marital Counseling vs Couples Counseling
While the client base for both types of counseling are couples, the goals of each therapy serve different purposes. One is more future-oriented while the other works with present issues. Additionally, engaged couples typically seek out pre-marital counseling. The goals of Pre-Marital Counseling are to discuss all of the issues that may arise during in a marriage as well as fears or concerns each person in the relationship may have about marriage and the commitment it takes to make a marriage work. The counseling sessions serve a purpose during a specific time within a couple’s lives. While couples counseling aims to help couples who are having ongoing relationship problems. Couples may seek out the services of a counselor at any point in their relationship. The goal of these type of sessions is to help couples with any issue they are experiencing in that moment.
What Are Some of the Issues Pre-Marital Counseling Seeks to Address?
How to Communicate with Each Other
Contrary to popular belief, arguing is not the sign of a strong and healthy relationship. When a young couple decides to commit to each other for the rest of their lives, communication and compromise become very important to establishing a strong relationship. During pre-marital counseling sessions, a counselor can give good advice on how to have open discussions about important issues and how to avoid turning those discussions into destructive arguments.
Marital Stress
The world can often be an unforgiving place. Having a significant other to help shoulder the burden can be reassuring. Most young couples will be experiencing new kinds of stress for the first time. The stress of making mortgage payments and caring for children are usually brand new experiences that can present challenges. A marriage counselor can offer ways to cope with stress and find healthy ways to deal with the challenges that the world has to offer.
Managing Finances
Many of the arguments between married people are usually about finances. Once again, the idea of creating and maintaining a household is brand new to both parties in a new marriage. The concept of having to pay for things such as insurance and taxes, both of which seem to offer no immediate satisfaction, can create conflict.
Managing finances is one of the most significant challenges a newly-married couple will face. It’s extremely beneficial to get professional advice from an experienced counselor on how to handle these issues. Pre-marital counseling can help you and your partner with many things including:
- creating and managing a budget
- understanding the financial challenges that you may both face
- communicating with each other about pending financial problems
Dealing with In-Laws
From the golden age of television to present day, comedians have feasted on the idea of dealing with in-laws in a marriage. But when you are a couple of young and ambitious people looking to start your life together, dealing with in-laws is not a joke. The in-laws from both sides can be a source of stress. It could cause the pair to start arguing with each other and that can lead to other marital challenges.
During the course of your pre-marital sessions, a marriage counselor may be able to point out the good and the bad of having in-laws. Deep down, most in-laws mean well. They usually just want to offer advice to help their children to get started in their new life together. In reality, some of the advice in-laws have to give can be very beneficial. A counselor can offer a strong foundation of understanding that can be used to handle the in-laws situation successfully.
Handling A Growing Family
Some couples discuss having children before they get married, while others do not. It’s almost impossible for an inexperienced pair to understand the emotional ups and downs that come with having children, until the children actually arrive. A counselor can help put everything in perspective and teach the husband and wife to have healthy conversations about children. As with anything else in a successful marriage, it all starts with good conversation.
A young couple that has yet to exchange their vows may not find a need for marriage counseling. To some, the idea of seeing a counselor could be taboo. This is because of the myths and misconceptions about the work that counselors do.
Pre-Marital Counseling Key-Takeaways
The reality is that attending pre-marital counseling before getting married can give newlyweds the information they need to establish a healthy and long-lasting relationship. There will be many new experiences and opportunities for conflict. A marriage counselor can help the couple to prepare properly and put together a solid relationship.
Check out our list of online therapy sites to find a marriage counselor today!