Prepare for Marriage and Commitment with Core Relationship Skills
Love is multifaceted and dynamic. Marital and pre-marital counseling helps you ride and navigate the currents, staying true to yourself and your aims. Read my article, "A Little Premarital Preparation Can Save You a Lot". If this sounds helpful to you, contact me below for tools to craft and nurture your closest relationship.
The PREPARE/ENRICH Program has these goals for the couple:
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Explore relationship strength and growth areas
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Strengthen couple communication skills, including Assertiveness
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Identify and manage major stressors
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Learn conflict resolution strategies using the Ten Step Model
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Explore family-of-origin issues using the Couple and Family Map (Circumplex Model)
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Discuss financial planning and budgeting
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Develop personal, couple and family goals
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Understand and appreciate personality differences
The PREPARE/ENRICH Program can help you get to know each other and understand each other better. Typical, normal couples have uncomfortable truths and differences to face at points in their long-term relationship and marriage. How these difficulties are dealt with contributes to relationship success. This program and facilitated core skills training can get you started in a positive direction.
The Prepare/Enrich Program can be taken at any time - even in the months after you marry. However, I recommend taking this program 6 weeks or more prior to making your wedding preparations. This gives you time to examine the dynamics of your relationship, work on growth areas, and approach wedding planning as a team.
“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Couples sessions are tailored to the needs of committed couples. Approaches include the Gottman Method, the Couples Institute Stages of Relationship, Prepare-Enrich core marriage skills, and Family Systems.
Prepare-Enrich
The Prepare/Enrich Program provides couples with a computerized inventory to quickly gather information about each partner. This online inventory and report has been used by over two million couples nationally and allows the couple (aided by a trained facilitator) to identify and talk about their relationship’s strengths and growth areas.
Common Concerns
How Prepare-Enrich Helps
- Resolving conflict and learning from differences
- Addressing issues with in-laws
- Navigating major life transitions or parenting decisions
- Managing stress that can overwhelm couple time
- Creating a shared vision of the future
Each partner completes the inventory online (a 40-60 minute process that can be worked on and saved, if needed). Then you meet with me, the facilitator, together to go over areas of strength and growth in your relationship. At this time, I will help you talk to one another about the issues identified and/or whatever is on your mind leading up to marriage and commitment. I will provide you with time-tested exercises to increase understanding and core relationship skills.