Benefits of Premarital Counseling

By Denise Humphrey, Ph.D., www.DeniseHumphrey.com

If you and your partner are recently engaged or considering moving in that direction, you may want to consider engaging in pre-marital counseling. With all of the excitement, drama and stress of a proposal, planning the wedding, honeymoon and possibly living together for the first time, couples often forget to focus on what really matters — life after “I do.”

Pre-marital counseling provides an opportunity for couples to carefully consider the gravity of the commitment they are about to make with one another. Whereas dating is highly focused on romantic coupling, a marriage is a financial and legally binding agreement merging two families, two sets of financials and two homes. Oftentimes dating couples make assumptions about how the future will unfold without actually discussing the nuances of parenting, work and home life balance, political differences, religious views or even concepts as basic as the expectations of each other in the husband or wife role.

Pre-marital counseling addresses all of the issues and more. Couple’s are often shocked by what they learn about their potential spouse as conversations unfold that might not have occurred otherwise. Pre-marital counseling also provides an opportunity for a couple to engage in a relationship with a therapist from the very onset of a marriage and allows the therapist to guide the relationship as it matures and experiences in times of joy as well as times of stress.

We all know the grim statistics of divorce rates. Many marriages end in divorce because the couple simply grew apart or they wanted different things out of life. Pre-marital counseling provides an opportunity for a couple to evaluate what each person’s desires or expectations are for the marriage before entering into it.

If you are considering tying the knot with your significant other, pre-marital counseling may be the greatest gift the two of you could give each other.

Denise Humphrey, Ph.D.
Schedule an appointment with Dr. Humphrey today! 972-239-2490

CREDENTIALS
•    Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology:  Fielding Graduate University
•    Master of Music in Piano Performance:  University of Notre Dame
•    Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance:  Southern Methodist University
•    License No. and State: 32345 Texas
•    Board of Trustees, Dallas Foundation for Psychoanalysis
•    Chair, Arts Committee for the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology
•    Member, National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology