According to Brooklyn College, only one in four marriages is successful, but premarital couples counseling can reduce the risk of divorce up to 30 percent. In counseling, couples learn skills to strengthen their relationships and deal with the stress that leads up to marriage. Couples may seek counseling from professional counselors or religious advisors, or as part of a retreat or weekend workshop.
Premarital Counseling
Premarital counseling can help couples learn about each other and increase their communication skills. The focus is not upon repairing a bad relationship, as the word "counseling" may imply, but upon learning those communication skills. Although many engaged couples believe that they do not have any issues to work through, increasing communication skills at the beginning of their marriage can help to lay a solid foundation for years to come. Counseling can help couples to successfully resolve the inevitable conflicts regarding career, finances and child rearing, among others.
Pre-Cana Workshops
Pre-Cana is a marriage preparation program, generally required of couples before they may be married in a Catholic church. Pre-Cana usually takes the form of weekend retreats or workshops, lasting from one to three days. Couples can get away from their busy lives in a quiet, reflective space. Workshops involve activities to help couples listen, communicate and express their feelings about marriage.
Workshops are facilitated by other couples and priests, but unlike premarital counseling, Pre-Cana is based in religious beliefs. However, Pre-Cana training involves many of the topics and communications skills that couples encounter in marriage counseling.
Retreats
Premarital retreats take different forms and cover different topics. A retreat may, like counseling or Pre-Cana, cover a variety of issues for premarital couples; others offer a more intensive experience for engaged couples with specific concerns.
For example, some retreats center around integrating religion and spirituality; others on building relationship skills; others on second marriages; still otheres on family planning. Retreats are usually designed to take the couple away and teach them to connect without distraction, and to interact with and learn from other couples. Retreats help couples to explore such topics as their strengths and weaknesses, goals, and their relationships with society and religion; also such important and practical topics as money, sex, children and family as they may impact a couple's marriage.
Tags: help couples, communication skills, counseling Pre-Cana, couples learn, engaged couples