ARE YOU RESEARCHING PREMARITAL COUNSELING?
HAVE YOU SEEN PREPARE ENRICH PREMARITAL COUNSELING MENTIONED AND WONDER WHAT THAT’S ALL ABOUT?
WELL, LET ME TELL YOU MORE ABOUT PREPARE AND ENRICH.
I’ve been using the Prepare Enrich Premarital Counseling in my practice with premarital couples for over 12 years now. I have found it to be a very helpful framework for my couples. It is designed to cover all the major aspects of a couple’s life together that are important to discuss when preparing for marriage, and I believe it does a good job of this.
Prepare and Enrich is very reputable, highly researched, and widely used. In fact, it’s been the most widely used premarital and marriage assessment for 35 years. You can read more about this on the Prepare-Enrich website. Certified Prepare Enrich facilitators, like the therapists at Fava Counseling Associates, walk you through the program typically in 6-8 sessions, beginning with an in-depth online assessment. Then, using the assessment results and exercises from the program, they make sure to cover all the essentials. Based on you and your partner’s unique results, there may be additional specialized exercises and conversations to make sure you are prepared for your marriage.
THE FULL PROCESS OF PREMARITAL THERAPY WILL LOOK DIFFERENT FROM COUPLE TO COUPLE, BUT THERE ARE CERTAIN CORE SUBJECTS THAT ARE USEFUL TO COVER NO MATTER WHAT.
THESE ARE:
- Communication
- Conflict Resolution
- Relationship Roles & Expectations
- Lifestyle and Habits
- Financial Management
- Sex and Affection
- Family and Friends
- Spiritual Beliefs
- Differences in Partner’s Personalities
- Stress Management
THE PROCESS AND THE PREPARE ENRICH ASSESSMENT:
Right in the beginning (usually after the first session), you will be emailed a link to go online and take the couples relationship assessment. The Prepare/Enrich Assessment involves a series of questionnaires that are completed separately by you and your partner. These questionnaires cover various aspects of a couple’s relationship, including communication, conflict resolution, financial management, intimacy, personality, and more.
The assessment is taken online and can generate a detailed report that provides insights into your relationship’s strengths and areas where you may need to work to improve the relationship. The assessment costs $35 and is paid to Prepare-Enrich. It is important that you and your partner take the Prepare Enrich Assessment separately and as honestly as possible, and do not discuss the test with each other. It usually takes 30 minutes to an hour to complete.
THE PREPARE ENRICH ASSESSMENT SERVES SEVERAL PURPOSES, INCLUDING:
- Identifying Strengths: It helps couples identify their strengths as a couple, reinforcing positive aspects of their relationship.
- Highlighting Areas for Growth: The assessment identifies areas of potential concern or areas where couples may need to improve their communication and problem-solving skills.
- Tailored Counseling: Based on the assessment results, therapists and counselors can provide more personalized and effective guidance to help couples strengthen their relationship.
- Communication Tool: It provides a framework for couples to discuss important topics and address issues in their relationship.
Then, in your next scheduled session, the Prepare-Enrich facilitator will go over some of the results of your unique assessment and will begin to tailor a specific plan for you and your partner based on your own individual results.
The remaining sessions will go through each of the major topics listed above, and your specific assessment results, using structured exercises to help you make improvements and grow in your understanding of your partner and relationship. Sometimes there are homework assignments to do between the sessions, to really make sure you are implementing what you learned into your everyday life.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT PREPARE ENRICH?
It’s VERY thorough, and the results and sessions are unique to you. The assessment reports contain all kinds of graphs and charts describing you and your partner on many different relationship domains. It includes assessments of your personalities and how they differ or are similar to your partner. It looks at certain key aspects of the family you grew up in (How open was your family? How flexible were they?) and compares them to your partner’s family, and your current relationship with your partner (How open or flexible do you and your partner view your relationship?). There also is a 30+ page couples workbook with additional exercises that can be administered when applicable to your specific relationship needs. This takes the premarital process from being a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all all experience, to a truly tailored and specialized experience unique to your relationship.
HAVE I SOLD YOU ON THE PREPARE ENRICH PROGRAM YET? HERE’S MY FINAL TWO CENTS:
I will say that though I and my team rely heavily on Prepare Enrich for our work with premarital couples, I do not strictly use this program with every couple. It is a very structured curriculum, and I’ve found in my own work with couples that sometimes you need to veer from the structure to have some open discussions about current issues in the relationship. I also have been highly trained in the Gottman method of couples counseling (read more about the Gottman method here), and use many of the tools from that in my work with premarital couples as well. So I’m not a purist.
But overall, I find it to be a great framework for the premarital process. If after reading this, you are fully sold and want to get started today, contact us, and we can get your first premarital session scheduled. You can also go directly to our portal and schedule a consultation with any of our team members, who are all Certified Prepare-Enrich facilitators!
If you have more questions about the premarital counseling process and want to learn more, call or email us to set up a free 15-minute consultation, where I can answer more of your specific questions.