Premarital and Pre-Commitment Counseling

By: Abby Lombardo, LMFT

 

What is Prepare/Enrich?

Prepare/Enrich is a program used with couples to improve the quality and satisfaction of their relationship via an evidence-supported assessment that allows for personalized feedback, discussion, and relationship skills training.  It serves well as Premarital & Pre-commitment Counseling, in addition to a relationship tune-up & check-in for couples at any stage in their relationship.

 

Who is it for?

The assessment customizes itself automatically based on the general demographic information provided by the couple at the time of taking the assessment. The assessment itself takes about 30-45 minutes, taken by each individual separately and costs $35. The assessment asks questions related to your attitudes and what you think your partner’s attitudes are towards roles, commitment, dynamics, conflict, family, spirituality, and personality in the context of your relationship. It is not a pass/fail type of test. Research-backed, the assessment gives a snapshot depiction of your relationship and its strengths and growth areas, which then become the content for our following sessions. We identify where you might require the help of some more tools or insight and practice right there in session the very skills you’ll use outside the therapy room.

Couples who can benefit from Prepare/Enrich include premarital couples, couples thinking about taking the next step in their relationship whether that is engagement, marriage, or neither. Couples in later stages of their relationship are also encouraged to try this program, as it can teach skills that are helpful for everyday fights and recurring struggles, and even stepfamily-specific issues.

It can be used as prevention and a tune-up for strong relationships or a honed-in detector for problematic areas in struggling relationships.

 

What will I get from it?

As a trained facilitator, I will walk you through your personalized feedback highlighting strengths and matching growth areas with skills and education. We meet for as many sessions as you would like to dive into the rich information provided by your answers to the assessment -- many couples choose to meet for 6-10 one-hour sessions.

We’ll have some fun as well as some honest, open dialogue that gets to the heart of your experience in your relationship--the good and the not so good.

You will leave our time together with a better understanding of yourselves not only as individuals but as a team, feeling more prepared to take on future challenges with the insight, knowledge, and skills acquired from our sessions.

Skills training addresses important skills such as assertiveness (how to effectively ask for what you need or want from your partner/relationship), conflict resolution (10 step formula to help you walk through disagreement), and stress management (how to address stressors as a couple). It makes sense then that taking the Prepare/Enrich assessment prior to marriage has been found to reduce your risk of divorce by 30%!

Every couple has patterns they must acknowledge, address, and work on together if they are to be successful in navigating this modern-day world with its many distractions and demands. The Prepare/Enrich program reminds us that relationships take work.

One more time, in case you missed that: Every relationship takes work.

The work can be hard, but also very rewarding. Not many people have had access to a “How To Have Successful Relationships” course that prepares them with the knowledge and skills they need to have satisfying, happy, healthy relationships throughout their lifespan. Consider the Prepare/Enrich program your personalized relationship course, specifically molded to your relationship’s unique needs.

 

It’s never too late to learn how to do relationship better or to learn the skills that can improve your connection and communication.

If you’re interested in benefitting from the Prepare/Enrich program, reach out to us on the contact page and request to work with Abby!

 

Source: Why Prepare-Enrich? Prepare-Enrich. Retrieved from: https://www.prepare-enrich.com/couples/why-prepare-enrich/