What does it take to have a healthy marriage? Ask any individual on the streets of Long Island and chances are they’ll have a different answer, or a vague answer like “good communication” that means very different things to different people. When you get married, the goal is to have your marriage be “til death,” and yet we know that many marriages struggle to succeed.
What is the difference between a marriage that is successful and a marriage that is not? How do you get a marriage to last? What kind of work does a marriage need? These are all questions that every engaged couple asks themselves before marriage, and one of the best ways to answer it is with pre-marital counseling.
Pre-Marital Counseling in Long Island, Garden City, and Lawrence, NY
Pre-Marital Counseling, sometimes referred to as “marriage preparation counseling” is a style of counseling that seeks to build a strong marriage before the marriage has even started. Weddings and marriage can have a powerful effect on people, both good and bad:
- They can create a “honeymoon period” where fights are less frequent.
- They can create financial burden, especially if you are paying for the wedding.
- They can create fears, where every fight makes you question the future.
Indeed, before, during, and after the marriage, the way you feel, your communication, your goals and expectations, and more will all change dramatically. In some ways they’ll change for the better – such as feeling more secure knowing you and your partner are married – but in other ways they can create challenges that need to be overcome.
This is why many couples now are electing for pre-marital counseling. This is a style of counseling that is unrelated to how healthy your marriage is or how strong you are as a couple. It’s marriage counseling focused on how to KEEP you strong, and how to make sure that your marriage and relationship will continue to thrive. During marriage preparation counseling, you’ll learn skills like:
- How to communicate more effectively.
- How to handle the wedding night, honeymoon, and the idea of kids.
- How to maintain a friendship in the long term.
- How to handle common stresses, like finances, children, household duties, etc.
- How to create and maintain trust, love, and mutual respect.
In many ways, pre-marital counseling helps make that that you’re prepared for everything ahead of you, and that after the wedding is over the two of you continue to build and create strong bonds that will withstand the tests of time. It’s also the best time to talk about issues that have created pressure between you, so that they don’t come out as the stress of the wedding gets closer.
Long Island Couples Counseling
Pre-Marital Counseling is a newly popular form of couples counseling in Long Island, but it is simply one of the best ways to help couples with their marriage before they have even been married. As a Long Island Psychologist, have worked with countless couples around the Long Island, Garden City, and Lawrence areas, and I’m confident that we can build a stronger future for the two of you. Contact me today at (516) 732-0273 to find out more about pre-marriage counseling, or to schedule your appointment.
