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Pre-marital counseling can be helpful as couples make the transition into married life together. Counseling can help identify potential problems and provide ways to work through them.

Pre-marital counseling can help engaged couples prepare

Jamie Moon MOO05002@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

A question on some engaged couples’ minds is whether to get pre-marital counseling or not. BYU-Idaho Counseling Center offers this service. With staff members trained to handle pre-marital counseling, engaged couples might want to take a closer look at this service.

BYU-I Counseling Center director Reed Stoddard answered a few questions about what pre-marital counseling entails.

“The session includes an overview of relationship difficulty,” Stoddard said. “It really depends on the couple. It could just be one session. Some couples come for weeks or months and some couples come in to check their progress.”

Pre-marital counseling helps couples to make the transition into marriage smoother.

“It is helpful to have a third person identify issues that might present themselves after marriage. It can help the couple set some ground rules,” Stoddard said.

Richard Cluff, a BYU-Idaho psychology professor, said having pre-marital counseling might make the marriage run more smoothly.

“It could help identify problem areas before time,” Cluff said. “It won’t catch all of the problems, but it will allow the couple to get useful information. It will also be useful for themselves. The psychologist definitely isn’t going to sit them down and tell them they are not a good match.”

Many students wonder if pre-marital counseling can be useful.

“I think it is a good idea. There have been many wonderful people who have been successful even without it,” Cluff said.

Stoddard said pre-marital counseling isn’t for every couple and more couples seek it than actually need it.

“If the relationship isn’t as healthy or as smooth as the couple would like it to be, or if one or more of the partners feels the need, I would recommend it,” Stoddard said.

Couples who are interested in receiving pre-marital counseling can call the BYU-I Counseling Center to set up an appointment at Ext. 1100.