Pre Marital Counseling

jennb3

Any recommendations for the triad area? I'm in Winston-Salem and would like to find a not too expensive option for some pre-marital counseling! 

NcsuPsych

Do you have a local church you attend?
DH and I went to the church we plan on joining and asked about it and were  directed to the pastor that does it for free.  We gave a donation to the church afterwards though for the time that was spent and what not.
I highly recommend the counseling no matter where you go though. I feel like for us, it got us talking about things we hadn't fully thought about because it wasnt a situation that would happen at this direct time.

Good luck!

meredithl618

Ditto to the church you attend. I know that our pastor required we meet with him a number of times to discuss the ceremony and do some premarital counseling.  

I def. think this is a good thing for you to do. There are some pretty important things you should discuss and compare your approach/thoughts about before getting married... things that you might not have outright discuss otherwise.

If you've already got a pastor/officiant picked out, they can likely recommend someone for you or help you out themselves. 

aleighk1

I'm glad you asked this, FI and I never considered doing it, but we've talked out it and think it will probably be a good idea. How far in advance should you do it?

sellis128

I'm getting married in April and we are starting our counseling in January. It last for about 6 weeks. Our pastor said you didn't want to do it too early, and you don't want to do it so close to the wedding b/c you'll be too stressed to actually focus!

jennb3

Well the "issue" is that we attend Catholic church (not regularly) but arne't having a Catholic wedding because we aren't getting married in a Catholic church and therefore cannot have a ceremony recognized by the church. Its been an ordeal and has kind of turned us off to Catholicism for the time being. I'm not sure if we are able to do Pre-Cana without actually having a Catholic ceremony and if we can, I don't even know if we 100% want counseling through the Catholic church.

Second thing - since we can't have a priest marry us, we are having a friend who is in divinity school marry us. So he doesn't have a church or anything that does pre-marital counseling!

I think we'll try to call a few churches in the area to find out if they do it. I agree that it is very important and can definitely air some things out! Thanks for the suggestions

c456961

We are in W-S, and we are doing the Prepare Enrich program with Rev.  G. Donnelly.  So far, it has been a great experience working with him.  Highly recommend it!  www.revoncall.com