Although the phrase Premarital Counseling implies two people who want to get married, it is of course also applicable for couples who want to engage in a long-term relationship/partnership.
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Premarital Counseling is a specific form of Couples Therapy that aims at helping couples to prepare for marriage or for a long-term romantic relationship. One could say that it is like drawing up a kind of “plan” for the future.
With help of a counselor or psychotherapist, couples discuss mutual expectations about the future, such as financial goals, career plans, sex, or having children, they identify possible conflicts that can arise because of different personalities, backgrounds, beliefs, and value systems, talk about the expectations of each other, and procure the tools, techniques, and skills to navigate possible issues.
It’s basically a mutual endeavor to really “get to know each other” before marriage so that it becomes more clear what one can expect in the future and already prepares how to deal positively with each other and with the challenges that may arise at some point during the relationship. In addition, it is also a kind of “extra test” to see if the other one is really “the right one.”
At any rate, the final aim of Premarital Counseling is to prevent a perhaps unnecessary disruption or ending of the relationship, and securing a happy, lovingly, satisfactory, and long lasting intimate commitment.
