Pre-Marital Counseling Referrals

chellekel

I've got a rough guest list and budget, and venue locked down.  The next thing I would like to tackle is getting started on premarital counseling.  This is very high on my list.  Neither my FI or I are religious or have a relationship with a place of worship.  Can anyone recommend a counselor?  We live in Oakland County, but are willing to travel for someone highly recommended.

TIA!

Sue-n-Kevin

Can you clarify why you want this? I'm not being nosy, just trying to help.

I think if you believe you and your fiance have some issues to nail down before getting married and want to talk to a professional about them, then counseling is fine. But, if you think it's necessary before you can select a religious person to marry you, it's going to depend on the minister and the venue.

There are many venues that are "non-denominational", and there are many ministers that provide marriage services without counselling.

If you want a minister to perform a specific ceremony in line with a specific religious belief, you'll have to be more specific. If you simply want to find a minister that does pre-marital counselling as part of their "package", you'd need to specify that as well.

From the many brides I've seen post on the Knot, most go with an ordained person who they have a good "feel" for from other bride's recommendations, and from what I can recall, pre-wedding counseling was not one of the services offered (I could be wrong) But if you have no particular place of worship, you can choose anyone and have them at a non-denominational house of worship.

Check the post-it thumbtack at the top of the page for some of the ministers/officiants that we've all used.

sopraffina

Miriam Jerris is a secular humanist clergy. She does pre-marital counseling and officiating. I'll send you a private message with her pricing.

http://www.theweddingconnection.net/ 

I met with her in May (with FI on skype) and we loved her. 

binnie1

Hi - we went to North Point in Novi.  They can do religous or non-religous based counseling.  We worked with Lisa and she was great.   It's an investment, but one we found to be well worth it!

http://www.northpoint-counseling.com/services.html

chellekel

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_michigan-detroit_pre-marital-counseling-referrals?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:88Discussion:f1a6c0fb-8e73-44cb-8e8c-32c4c37b9110Post:30063f1f-e4eb-4555-8b80-e2977078d6c6">Re: Pre-Marital Counseling Referrals</a>:
[QUOTE]Can you clarify why you want this? I'm not being nosy, just trying to help. I think if you believe you and your fiance have some issues to nail down before getting married and want to talk to a professional about them, then counseling is fine. But, if you think it's necessary before you can select a religious person to marry you, it's going to depend on the minister and the venue. There are many venues that are "non-denominational", and there are many ministers that provide marriage services without counselling. If you want a minister to perform a specific ceremony in line with a specific religious belief, you'll have to be more specific. If you simply want to find a minister that does pre-marital counselling as part of their "package", you'd need to specify that as well. From the many brides I've seen post on the Knot, most go with an ordained person who they have a good "feel" for from other bride's recommendations, and from what I can recall, pre-wedding counseling was not one of the services offered (I could be wrong) But if you have no particular place of worship, you can choose anyone and have them at a non-denominational house of worship. Check the post-it thumbtack at the top of the page for some of the ministers/officiants that we've all used.
Posted by Sue-n-Kevin[/QUOTE]

Hi Sue.  We are actually looking a non-religious or secular pre-marital counselor. Most of my friends that are married have gone through pre-marital counseling through their churches and I was unsure about how to go through pre-marital counseling since I will not be married in a church, and not likely to be married by a minister or pastor. Although we've talked about things amongst ourselves (finances, kids, chores, etc), I would like a third-party to help us discuss everything in a more constructive manner and encourage us to open up about things or concerns we may have been holding back on...if any.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

emoemu

Just wanted to pop in and say thank you to the people who posted... this is EXACTLY what my fiance and I have been looking for! We're looking into both Northpoint and Miriam.