Premarital Coaching
premarital COACHING
more commonly REFERRED to AS, "PREMARITAL COUNSELING"
““[I]t didn’t take long for us to really start looking forward to each session with Chance! He is so knowledgeable about his work and did everything possible to make sure that we were getting the most we could out of the experience. He even formed a bond with my husband and was able to pull him out of his shell (he’s extremely shy) and get him to express some thoughts and feelings that I had never even heard from him in 6 years of being together! Seriously, ya’ll...Chance Dillon is the bee’s knees! We learned so much about ourselves as a couple during the process.”
-Matt and Haley ”
Photograph by Leah Puttkammer of Gray Kammera Photography. Click the image to visit Leah's website!
Premarital Coaching
What is “Premarital Coaching”?
What I call “Premarital Coaching” is most commonly known as “premarital counseling.” For reasons that I won’t discuss at length here, “premarital counseling” has never been an appropriate title for the process it refers to. It’s not “counseling”—it doesn’t involve diagnoses and no treatment is prescribed. To be honest, I'm not in love with the term "coaching" either, but I hope my decision to use the word "coaching" rather than "counseling" more accurately conveys that my intention is to be your partner and your equal throughout the "Premarital Exploration" process. But I digress.
What is the goal of our "Premarital Exploration"?
The fundamental goal of the Premarital Coaching process I call "Premarital Exploration" is to increase understanding of one's self and one's partner along dimensions directly pertinent to your relationship. This inevitably leads couples to more effective communication and in turn, a greater more profound sense of "connectedness"—a mutual partnership that is grounded in integrated compatibility.
Through my Premarital Exploration, couples obtain:
1) A profound awareness of the gifts they bring to their relationship.
2) Insight into how historical patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving impact their relationship.
3) A deeper sense of compassion for themselves and their partner when resolving conflicts - as well as conflict resolution methods to practice.
4) A basic understanding of how their instinctual drive for self-preservation, and sexual and social fulfillment affect their primary motivations and priorities in their relationship.
5) An increased capacity to observe themselves and the confidence to be "the one to go first" to shift the dynamics in their relationship.
How long does it take?
I have found that couples get the most out of the program when we meet for 1 hour a week for 6 weeks. Motivated couples have completed the program in 6 consecutive weeks, but this is not the norm. Understandably things come up and sometimes there’s a need to skip a week or two during the process. Whatever the case, we will find the pace that works best for you.