The Process

ECS’s Premarital and Marital Counseling programs consists of three parts: a premarital assessment process that helps couples determine their readiness for marriage; a seminar that focuses on the factors and skills that can help build a successful marriage; and tools for married couples to better understand and cope with the inevitable misunderstandings and difficulties of a married couple.

Pre-marital Assessment

The Premarital Assessment is based on a program called the Prepare and Enrich Inventory. After couples have completed this assessment, they will have the opportunity to explore their strengths, weaknesses, and individual growth areas with a counselor. The goal is to give couples a better understanding of the demands, as well as the rewards, of marriage and to provide them with tools that they can use to strengthen their union in the years to come. The program touches on issues ranging from communication and intimacy and sexuality to decision-making, family planning, conflict management, and more. Read more.

Pre-marital Education

The six-hour Premarital Educational Program starts from the point-of-view that successful marriages don’t just happen . . . that love needs to be nurtured . . a process that requires time, attention, and emotional energy. It focuses on such cornerstones of successful marriage as: mutual commitment, concern, love, and respect.

A sampling of covered topics includes: the sacrament of marriage; how to verbalize needs and wants; how to deal with problems before they become explosive; how to handle decision-making and planning together; how to manage anger and stress; and how to meet each other’s needs as well as those of the rest of the family, including the in-laws. Read more.

 

Marriage Counseling

Most of us assume that if we can speak and hear, we can communicate. What we say verbally constitutes only a small part of all that is communicated. How we listen, look, sound and feel will constitute the majority of how we communicate. Read more.