Pre Marital Counseling

ragsdalejennifer

Sooo... I thought I had this done off my list, but turns out the gal that we had booked our pre marital counseling with prefers to only do couples counseling and isn't "comfortable" with the pre-marital aspect. (I'm glad we found this out sooner than later) Anyways, we will be doing pre marital counseling with my grandpa over the summer and he is also our officiant / pastor but we would like another perspective as well (an outside party that neither one of us knows).

Does anyone have anyone to recommend? I have tried looking it up online and have found several "agencies" that do not accept insurance and charge $100/hour. I thought that was pretty expensive. Any other ideas? TIA!

deregniern

We did ours with Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center in Urbandale.  There are a couple of people there that do it.  They accept insurance, but most insurance companies do not cover pre marital counseling.  They determine how much you pay based off a sliding scale from both incomes.  I think ours was $60 per visit and one of us was a student/working part time and the other is working full time. HTH!!

ragsdalejennifer

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_iowa-des-moines_pre-marital-counseling?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:80Discussion:fc7144f2-0efa-4620-bf43-9a8a1099998dPost:3cea9279-002f-4ab1-b143-2d7f59365c69">Re: Pre Marital Counseling</a>:
[QUOTE]We did ours with Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center in Urbandale.  There are a couple of people there that do it.  They accept insurance, but most insurance companies do not cover pre marital counseling.  They determine how much you pay based off a sliding scale from both incomes.  I think ours was $60 per visit and one of us was a student/working part time and the other is working full time. HTH!!
Posted by deregniern[/QUOTE]

Thank you for the info! We ended up finding a counselor and booked an appointment for March 2nd. Kind of nervous but also excited about it. I have been told that pre marital counseling should be a must have! Did you find yours to be akward? Was anything discussed that you didn't see comming?

deregniern

I think we both kind of knew what was coming.  We had bought several books with things like "1000 questions to ask before you get married." FI has also been married before, so there was some discussion going on with that before we went it.  When we went they had us take the PREPARE test.  I'm not sure if you will do that or not, but I found that to be a lot of help.  It kind of gives you an idea of what areas of your relationship you do well in and which could use some work.  I have to say it was a bit awkward though.  It's like you have to explain your relationship to a stranger so they know the intimate details.  I dont know that could have just been who we were seeing, and I'm sure it is different for everyone.  FI wanted to do premarital counseling, but he was not a fan of the person we saw really.  We did do some fun communication activities that served a very good purpose. Good luck.  Just go in with an open mind, and you will be fine.