premarital counseling program
A space to thoughtfully explore your relationship and intentionally prepare for what comes next.
Led by skilled 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.
Who Can Benefit From Premarital Counseling?
You do not need to be engaged to benefit from premarital counseling. Our program may be helpful if you are:
Preparing for marriage or a long-term commitment
Considering moving in together or combining households
Discussing children, finances, or future plans
Entering an interfaith or intercultural marriage
Building a queer or nontraditional partnership
Hoping to understand recurring disagreements before they grow
You also do not need to agree on everything before beginning. Sometimes the most valuable reason to come to counseling is that you have something important you want to understand together.
If your relationship is already experiencing ongoing distress, disconnection, or persistent conflict, you may also want to learn about our couples therapy in Brooklyn.
Inclusive Premarital Counseling for Every Relationship
There is no universal blueprint for a successful marriage.
Some couples want to be parents, while others do not. Some combine their finances completely, while others maintain greater independence. Some are deeply involved with extended family, while others prefer stronger boundaries. Some relationships are monogamous, while others develop different agreements around intimacy and commitment.
Groundwork Therapy welcomes couples of different backgrounds, identities, and orientations, including straight, LGBTQIA+, queer, interfaith, and intercultural couples.
Our work is not about imposing a particular model of marriage. Premarital counseling should help you clarify what partnership and commitment mean to you.
Online and In-Person Premarital Counseling
Groundwork Therapy provides in-person premarital counseling from our Brooklyn office for couples throughout Brooklyn and New York City.
We also offer online premarital counseling for couples located anywhere in New York State. Virtual sessions can make it easier to coordinate two schedules, avoid commuting, and participate from a familiar environment while receiving the same thoughtful, structured support.
Whether you meet with us in person or online, the work remains centered on creating enough space for both people to feel heard.
frequently asked questions
about premarital counseling
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Groundwork Therapy’s premarital counseling program generally lasts between 8 and 15 weeks. The exact length depends on your relationship, goals, and the subjects you want to explore. If needed, we can also explore more traditional couples therapy when longer-stemming issues emerge in our discussions.
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No. Premarital counseling can also be helpful for couples who are considering marriage, moving in together, combining finances, or preparing for another form of long-term commitment.
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Our premarital counseling is not religious or faith-based, and we do not promote or teach any particular religious beliefs. We do, however, make space for each couple’s beliefs, values, identities, and practices. For couples for whom religion or spirituality is meaningful, we can help facilitate conversations about how those beliefs may influence their partnership, family traditions, parenting, celebrations, and other aspects of their life together.
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You do not need to resolve every disagreement before starting counseling. Premarital therapy can help you understand the meaning beneath a disagreement, communicate more clearly, and decide how you want to approach important decisions together.
Our Premarital Counseling Therapists
ABBEY MAXBAUER, LMSW
MELISSA JOHNSON, PSYD
EMILY CAPPELL-SCHULTZ, LMSW
Begin Premarital Counseling in Brooklyn
Let’s build the groundwork for a relationship that lasts.
You bring your histories, hopes, habits, fears, expectations, and dreams into your relationship. Some of those things may fit together naturally. Others will require patience, conversation, and negotiation.
That is not a sign that your relationship is failing. It is part of becoming partners.
Our premarital counseling program can help you explore difficult questions, appreciate what already works, and develop a deeper understanding of the person you are choosing to build a life with.
You do not have to wait until something goes wrong to start caring for your relationship.