| Pre-marriage counseling is a psychological counseling | | | | institutions, non-profit organizations, and professional |
| given to prospective wives and husbands before | | | | marriage counselors offer pre-marriage counseling |
| marriage. It plays an important role in building healthy | | | | courses. Counseling courses generally cover topics |
| marriages. Many marriage studies and researches | | | | such as identifying strength and growth areas, |
| have shown that pre-marriage counseling helps reduce | | | | developing conflict resolution skills, intimacy and |
| the possibility of divorce. Couples who attend | | | | sexuality issues, values and beliefs, setting up family |
| pre-marriage counseling classes are able to better | | | | goals, personality types, family origin issues, role |
| overcome challenges and difficulties. Pre-marriage | | | | relationships, communication skills, marriage |
| counseling sessions create an awareness of marital | | | | expectations, children and parenting issues, and, the |
| issues and problems that might occur in marital | | | | most important of all, financial issues. In addition to the |
| relationship. Pre-marriage counseling also assists | | | | above, pre-marriage counseling courses share group |
| people in determining if they are fully ready for | | | | experiences, and encourage reading and homework |
| marriage. Counseling sessions range from two or | | | | activities. These activities help couples build a solid |
| more meetings to relatively long discussions. | | | | foundation for their life. Pre-marriage counseling |
| Religious counselors commonly give pre-marriage | | | | programs are also offered online. A number of online |
| counseling. Pastoral counselors provide spiritual as well | | | | pre-marriage counseling programs present a wedding |
| as psychological resources to improve communication | | | | information packet to the couple in the beginning. |
| among couples. Pastoral pre-marriage counseling | | | | Before choosing a pre-marriage counselor, check his |
| programs are designed to assist the couple in building a | | | | certification, educational background, professional |
| biblical understanding and foundation for their married | | | | associations, and training. Also, check whether he has |
| life. | | | | experience with the job, because that can be an |
| Religious institutions, colleges and other educational | | | | important factor. |