premarital counseling program
A space to thoughtfully explore your relationship and intentionally prepare for what comes next.
Led by expert couples therapists, our premarital counseling program helps couples deepen their connection, navigate important conversations, and build a strong foundation for their future together.
Building the Groundwork for a Stronger Marriage
Getting married is exciting. It can also bring up questions you may not have expected.
How will you handle money? What happens when you disagree? How will you divide responsibilities? Do you both want children? How will you stay connected when work, family, and other responsibilities demand more of your time? How will you stay sexually compatible as the life demand grows?
At Groundwork Therapy, our premarital counseling program in Brooklyn gives engaged and committed couples a structured space to slow down, speak honestly, and understand one another more deeply before taking the next step.
Our approach draws on more than a decade of experience working with couples. We do not believe there is one correct way to build a marriage. Instead, we help you explore your relationship, recognize patterns that may become challenging, and make intentional decisions about the life you want to create together.
Whether you are planning a wedding, moving in together, or considering a deeper commitment, premarital therapy can help you build the groundwork for what comes next.
You Don’t Have to Wait for Relationship Problems
You may have a loving, healthy relationship and still discover that you have different assumptions about marriage. Perhaps one of you imagines having children while the other is uncertain. Maybe you grew up with very different ideas about money, intimacy, household responsibilities, family involvement, or commitment.
These differences do not automatically mean something is wrong. They simply mean there is something important to discuss.
Premarital counseling gives NYC couples an opportunity to bring these conversations into the open before marriage, while there is still plenty of room to listen, negotiate, and understand one another.
The goal is not to prevent every disagreement. It is to learn how to navigate differences without losing the connection underneath them.
What is covered in premarital counseling?
Our premarital counseling program is an 8-to-15-week, semi-structured experience designed to help couples explore the areas that matter most to a long-term partnership.
Rather than focusing only on what happened during the previous week, sessions provide a framework for discussing your relationship and future together. The program is adapted to your needs, identities, values, and circumstances.
expectations about marriage
You may have inherited ideas about what a spouse should be, how marriage should function, or what commitment is supposed to look like. These expectations may come from your family, culture, religion, previous relationships, or the relationships you observed growing up.
Premarital counseling can help you examine those assumptions and make space for your own expectations, wishes, beliefs, and fears.
Communication and Listening
Healthy communication involves more than talking. It also means being able to hear your partner without immediately becoming defensive, shutting down, trying to fix the problem, or preparing your response.
During premarital therapy, you can explore your communication styles and practice expressing difficult feelings in ways that create more room for understanding and connection.
Understanding Your Conflict Cycle
Every couple develops patterns.
One person may pursue a conversation while the other withdraws. One may become critical while the other becomes defensive or shuts down. A disagreement about something small can quickly begin to feel like an argument about the entire relationship.
Instead of focusing only on who is right, we help you ask a different question: What happens between us when we feel hurt, misunderstood, or disconnected?
Recognizing your conflict cycle can make it easier to interrupt that pattern, communicate what you need, and repair after an argument.
Finances, Family, and Building a Life Together
Marriage is emotional, but it is also practical.
Two people bring together different histories, habits, priorities, and expectations. Premarital counseling in Brooklyn gives you space to discuss these practical differences before they become recurring sources of confusion or resentment.
Depending on your relationship, sessions may address:
Spending, saving, and financial expectations
Careers and household responsibilities
Children, parenting, and family planning
Relationships with extended family
Lifestyle preferences and future goals
Friendships, boundaries, and social life
Fidelity and other relationship agreements
These subjects do not need to be perfectly resolved in one conversation. What matters is developing the ability to approach them together with honesty, curiosity, and respect.
Intimacy, Sex, and Emotional Connection
Sexual and emotional intimacy can be important parts of a committed relationship, yet many couples find it difficult to talk openly about what they want, need, or worry about.
You may have different levels of desire or different ideas about intimacy. You may also carry expectations or experiences shaped by previous relationships, family, culture, religion, gender, or sexual identity. When everything seems to be going well in your relationship, it can be easy to avoid any challenges or disappointments that are happening in your sexual life. Over time, those disappointments can weigh on you and impact your relationship.
In premarital therapy, couples can discuss these subjects in a supportive environment without judgment or embarrassment.
Our role is not to tell you what your intimate relationship should look like. It is to help you develop the openness, trust, and communication needed to create a relationship that feels meaningful and sustainable for both of you.
Our Premarital Counseling Therapists
ABBEY MAXBAUER, LMSW
MELISSA JOHNSON, PSYD
EMILY CAPPELL-SCHULTZ, LMSW
Let’s build the groundwork for a relationship that lasts.
We warmly welcome couples of all backgrounds, identities, and orientations to our comfy offices in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Whether you’re straight, queer, interfaith, or intercultural, our approach is collaborative and culturally aware. We don't assume a one-size-fits-all model of partnership. Our goal is to advise you around what you want and what works for you.