A Pre-marital Counseling Program

Yesterday, I attended a Prepare and Enrich workshop. Prepare and Enrich is a tool to help pastors, therapists, and anyone else who wants to help couple get ready for marriage. The program is not designed for a couple therapy. Rather the program consists of exercises where couples can discover each other's perceptions and expectations. However, if there is a need for the couple or a person in the relationship to seek therapy - such as sex abuse as a child, or sex addiction - then it is wise to refer them to see a specialist, while also taking the program.

The program is also designed for married couples. I spoke with the therapist who led the workshop and he explained that he uses it as an assessment tool, and if they need therapy, he will stop the program and will use his trained expertise in family and marital therapy to help the couple.

In the end, the Prepare and Enrich program is not a therapy program. Instead it is to help high functioning pre-marital couples and married couples with mild issues help improve their life together. If more serious issues arise, then it is facilitators responsibility to know if they have the knowledge and energy to take of the couple.