Now that you’ve said “yes,” it’s time to really start planning your new life together! As wonderful as being married is, it’s also complicated and needs the support of a healthy, strong foundation. Work together on solidifying that foundation before you walk down the aisle by building skills to nurture your relationship for a lifetime with premarital counseling. At Estes Therapy, we work with individuals on a daily basis who want to resolve arguments, improve their communication, and build strong communication. Using couple's skill-building techniques, we can all work together to mold your marriage into one that will survive all of the challenges it may face.
At Estes Therapy, we offer a premarital counseling package, with the option to continue counseling at your therapist’s typical rate if you so choose. The premarital package is designed to help you prepare as a couple for a solid marriage, understand your strengths, and improve your areas of growth. These sessions will be customized and catered to your relationship.
San Diego Premarital Counseling Package
What to Expect from Premarital Counseling Package San Diego:
- Online Relationship Assessment & Report: This easy, online assessment is completed before starting the initial premarital counseling and is customized to each person. It looks at the strengths of your relationship and identifies the growth areas - identifying therapy goals for you and your partner. This process will help assess the personality styles of each individual and draw out the relationship dynamic. Your couples therapist will walk through the results with you over the course of your three sessions. You will receive a copy of the report that will help you visually identify the strengths and understand each other on a deeper level. In these sessions, you will learn how to work with each other’s differences. This assessment will also help stimulate essential conversations and help guide you through the couple’s workbook. (The assessment is an additional $35.00, but worth your time and money.)
- The Couple’s Workbook: During the first session, you will receive a premarital couple’s workbook (from the Prepare and Enrich program) exploring various areas of relationships, tools to communicate, wedding planning tools, etc. This workbook will be used alongside the therapy process.
- Three Therapy Sessions: Through these therapy sessions you and your partner will explore relationship strengths and identify potential issues that need addressing. With the help of your therapist, you will strengthen communication skills to help address and prevent future conflict, and identify and manage major marriage stressors (in-laws, finances, parenting). Together, you will define the boundaries of the relationship as well as your own individual boundaries to help your marriage grow. You will gain the tools to resolve conflicts and understand each other in a deep and meaningful way. You will practice expressing vulnerability in a safe space and learn skills to create and strengthen your secure bond with one another.
The price of this entire premarital counseling package is
$425 for 3 sessions*.
*This is the upfront, pay-in-full price for working with select therapists. Give us a call, text, or email to find out which therapists are currently doing the premarital package. If you wish to pay as you go, or work with a specific Marriage and Family Therapist, it will be at the typical rate per 50 minute session. You can check out our therapists, their availability, and their rate on our Estes Therapy Team page.
What to expect from premarital counseling package San Diego:
Your therapist will cater your premarital package to you and your relationship. That means this is not a strict guideline, but a general idea of what to expect!
Therapy Session 1:
Identifying and Targeting Your Customized Relationship Goals: The first session is about the therapist getting to know you two as individuals and in the relationship. The first session will explore your comfort levels with each other and how you work as a team. Together, you will teach the counselor about your relationship, and how your relationship developed. Your therapist will explore with you the strengths of your relationship and your concerns for the future (if any). Together you will create goals for your relationship based on the assessment. Your therapist will then begin to go over the assessment results with you (this will continue throughout the 3 sessions).
- Discuss Goals for the therapy
- Goals for your relationship
- Results of Test
- Growth and Problem Areas
Therapy Session 2:
Teaming up for Your Marriage and Your Future: Communication is key to a solid marriage. This session will address communication styles, patterns of communication, and ways to create a strong alliance with one another. You will work on staying on the same team as you address and resolve differences, and learn how to communicate effectively as a couple – even when you don’t agree.
- Communication Styles/Patterns
- Learn how to address and resolve differences
- Conflict Resolution: Such as struggling with the in-law, managing finances, parenting, etc.
Therapy Session 3:
Tying the Knot: We want to make sure you feel very confident in your relationship when you say “I Do.” This relationship is about where you both have come from, where you are now, and what your future holds. With your therapist, you will work to have the tools to make this a strong relationship.
- Family of Origin Issue – How to handle the family
- Wedding Planning Stress and Managing it as a team
- Sex & Affection
- Spirituality & Beliefs
- Expectations of Marriage: Roles of one another
Note that this is typically what the layout of your 3 sessions will look like. However, your therapist will want to make sure your experience is catered specifically to you and your needs, so your 3 sessions may look a little different. Some couples want only 3 sessions to prepare for their future. Other couples extend the sessions and focus more specifically on a few items, or continue the work to strengthen some of the skills you learn. You get to make your premarital counseling package unique and tailored to your relationship. If you are looking for premarital counseling in San Diego, call or text us today!
Looking for more? Check out our ‘Communication Toolkit’ e-book to gain all the tips, tricks and information you may need to have a long lasting marriage.
The Wedding Survival Guide:
How to keep your relationship strong for tying the knot
Let’s face it, planning a wedding can be exciting yet it can also come with many complications. The stress of planning, the financial strains, and the family dynamics can get tangled and drive a wedge in between many couples. Our goal is to help you build a solid foundation and help you two feel very confident when you are saying “I do” at the wedding altar.
- How to Find a Premarital Counselor
We’ve given you the rundown of our premarital package, but finding the right therapist for you will make such a difference. Check out our tips on finding the right premarital counselor for you and your partner. - Check out our blog to see helpful tips
You wouldn't try to drive a car without filling the gas tank, and you shouldn't attempt to nurture a relationship without honest, open communication. Check out our blog for both individual and relational help - such as how to stop beating yourself up or how to communicate during an argument. - Our Communication Toolkit (e-book)
The Communication Toolkit is a fantastic resource at any point in your relationship - before you make it to the altar, or after you have already tied the knot. This e-book content and information was specifically designed and curated by three Marriage and Family Therapists here at Estes Therapy, with content that they have seen continually show up in their own couples therapy sessions. Written by three therapists of our own, you know it is going to be good!
