Premarital counselling

Goals

• Encourage interpersonal dialogue

• Providing information
• Correcting faulty information
• Prepare for marriage
• Ensure strong and healthy relationship
• Identify weakness
 Areas of focus
• Finances
• Communication
• Beliefs &values
• Roles in marriage
• Affection & sex
• Children & parenting
• Family relationship
• Decision making
 Cont…
• Dealing with anger
• Time spent together
• Remove misconception
• Expectations
• Commitment
• evaluation
Marital counselling
 Causes for marital problems
• marital Adjustment
• Work Stress
• Finance
• Parenting issues
• Outside relationship
• Trust
• Abuse/ violence
• Unrealistic expectations
• Power struggles
• Cultural and ethnic factors
 Role of couple counsellor
• Provide a confidential dialogue
• Enable the person to be heard & hear
• Mirror
• Empower relationship
• Relevant & appropriate information
• Improve communication
• Change view of relationship
 Cont….

• To identify the repetitive, negative interaction cycle as a 

pattern.
• To understand the source of reactive emotions that drive the
pattern.
• To expand and re-organize key emotional responses in the
relationship.
• To facilitate a shift in partners' interaction to new patterns of
interaction.
• To create new and positively bonding emotional events in the
relationship
• To foster secure attachment
 Techniques

• Communication enhancement
• Behaviour contracting
• Interaction therapy
• Strategic therapy
• Sex therapy
• Psychoanalytic therapy
• Intergenerational therapy
• Structural therapy
• Marital enhancement program
 Goals

• Establish parents as leader

• Replace unconscious negative interaction
• Encourage functional family interaction
 techniques
• Genogram
• Family floor plan
• Reframing
• Tracking
• Communication building
• Family sculpting
• Family photos
• Special days mini vacations
• Empty chair
• Family choreography
• Family council meetings
• Strategic alliance
• Decision making
• putting the client in control of the symptom