Prepare for your greatest commitment
Love, Prepared.
Like a budding flower
The start of a marriage is so promising …so much potential beauty. But, also like a budding flower, a new marriage is very delicate. It must be kept safe for it to blossom.
Between budgets, timelines, florists, caterers, dj’s, bands, entertainment, venues, familial and community obligations, writing vows, licenses, and more, planning a wedding has a lot of potential stressors.
Yet, a couple must find the fun and excitement in it. In this way, planning a wedding foreshadows marriage itself: no one knows what may lay ahead and how things will play out, but every couple is responsible for finding the joy and abiding in their love amid the chaos life may bring.
Eyes Wide Open
The best investment a couple can make in starting their marriage is preparation. While no one knows the future, through diligent preparation, a couple can position themselves to start their journey confident in their ability to navigate and overcome any obstacles that may be ahead.
Setting a united course for life together
The beauty of marriage is its fragility …marriage is the bold unabashed venture into the unknown future fueled by the hearts, hopes, minds and dreams of the couple. interself is here to help you achieve your specific goals and begin your journey together well-prepared.
The top ten results you can expect from interself’s Marriage Prep:
How the course is delivered
One-to-One Counseling
4x45 minute individual sessions that explore all that inform your perspective (feelings, thoughts, beliefs, obligations, goals).
Two-to-One Counseling
4x60 minute sessions that provide a 'deep-dive' into the connectivity and practical every day of your relationship .
Custom Exercises
Simple pocket guides to help keep our work together on track and benefiting you throughout your days together.
Journaling
Helping you organise your thoughts in ways which enable you to easily process your feelings.
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A unified sense of belonging
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A shared perspective that is positively attuned toward the future
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Skills to have efficient and meaningful communication
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Formulating specific goals and ways to reach them as a couple
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A reconciling perspective that perceives arguments as opportunities
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Learning how to have even more fun together and how to keep the relationship fresh.
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Improved intimacy and how to sustain a great sex life.
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Learning yourself and your partner anew and grow stronger together.
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Effective and efficient joint decision-making.
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Learning how to reap the benefits of freedom and security.
Are you considering engagement or planning to be married?
So, your partnership has reached a point where you are looking to take the next step? …Congratulations!
Whether, you are only considering engagement or have already gotten engaged and/or planning your wedding, you are the proactive type and want to do all you can to start off on the right foot…
Or, maybe you’re eager to take the next step but feel a bit reluctant because you still need to answer some questions or reconcile some challenges in order to move forward comfortably…
Or, perhaps it isn’t your first marriage or long-term relationship, so you find yourself really needing to feel completely confident that this time you and your partner are set up for success as best as possible…
Still, there could be many other reasons (e.g. how to practically navigate family or logistical challenges that arise with marriage, or spiritual or religious requirements) that have you considering pre-marriage counseling.
Whatever your reason(s) and need(s) may be, interself’s Marriage Prep pre-marriage counseling program is designed to accomplish your specific goals and instill the necessary skills to grow in your bond and commitment for a lifetime.
Marriage Prep Program Value
interself’s Marriage Prep program is 6-weeks long but can be easily expanded depending upon you and your partner’s unique needs and goals.
In fact, some of our couples decide to expand the program past their wedding day well into their first year to ensure they get off on the right foot.
The 6-week program includes:
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4 x 60-minute two-to-one counseling sessions
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4 x 45-minute one-on-one counseling sessions
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Assignments, exercises and journal reflections customized to you and your partner
interself Marriage Prep
Prepare for your greatest commitment
Pre-Marriage Counseling Like No Other
Whether you have yet to be engaged or just a month away from your big day, interself’s Marriage Prep is a unique program for couples considering, or preparing for, marriage.
It is suited for any couple who wants to proactively invest in their relationship, deepen their bond, resolve any obstacles, and cultivate the skills necessary for their journey longterm.
The interself marriage prep course is 6-weeks long but can be expanded depending on the couple’s unique needs and goals. It is a combination of: live two-to-one and individual counseling sessions, and customized exercises specific to you and your partner.
The interself guarantee
We care deeply about your results, and we want you both to be absolutely confident in the course. So, if you feel, at any point within the first week that our marriage prep course is not for you, then we will refund your money – no quibble, no questions. This is our cast-iron promise to you.
About Dr. Mark Allen
interself Founder
Mark has over two decades of experience working with both individuals and couples.
Drawing from multiple graduate degrees in philosophy, psychology, theology and complex and social systems theory, Mark has developed a unique model to nurture personal formation and healing by actively engaging life through relationships.
Prior to founding interself, Mark’s professional activities included work as a professor, divisional sales manager for a Fortune 500 company and the founding of two successful businesses. He worked his way through college as a radio announcer and has also served as a volunteer chaplain for nearly three decades.
Born and raised in Southwest Iowa, he lived in Denver for ten years before moving to California in 2010. He now resides in Folsom, CA with his wife Vanessa and basset hound Watson.
Take the next step by signing up for a complimentary session.
- Absolutely Free -
Book below:
Is pre-marriage counseling right for you?
If you are considering or preparing to be married:
The start of your married lives together is one of the best times to invest in focused couples counseling, particularly pre-marriage counseling. Here are the top seven reasons:
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Pre-marriage counseling positively provides specific feedback to you and your relationship, which is needed for you to make decisions and devise effective strategies to accomplish your goals and enjoy your partnership.
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Pre-marriage counseling helps to set a precedence of honesty, communication and intentionality for the entire course of your relationship.
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Pre-marriage counseling gives you an opportunity to move past any concerns or obstacles that may be lingering so that you can start your marriage off fresh and on the right foot.
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Pre-marriage counseling helps you broach expectations, plan for the future, and ask questions you may not have known to ask, or perhaps, how to ask.
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Pre-marriage counseling gives you practice to think, feel and reflect together as a couple with the guidance of a professional who is dedicated to your success.
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Pre-marriage counseling helps you to enjoy your wedding by helping to relieve stress and discuss how the logistics are unfolding, while at the same time reminding you to not loose focus on the bigger picture of your future lives together.
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Pre-marriage counseling provides an opportunity to establish a relationship with a couples counselor who can be a resource for you and your partnership should you find that you need it in the future.
Your partner is hesitant:
With weddings, many couples run into budget and time constraints as well as potential emotional overload. So, it makes complete sense to us that you and/or your partner may be hesitant due to existing on the margin.
We want to assure you that we’re very sensitive to these very real demands. In fact, we incorporate the experience of these pressures in our discussions. We find that they actually help to bring a greater understanding what is informing your experience and how you’re feeling and, in turn, informs us as to which practical tools will genuinely help you in your the situation.
Additionally, interself offers both an individual and a couple’s version of our Marriage Prep course. So, if your partner is not quite ready, we understand and can easily accommodate your needs. And, should anything change during the course, we can easily change too.
Starting interself’s marriage prep program is easy!
Begin by scheduling a free session, which can be done virtually over zoom or over the phone.
In this FREE session, you will discuss your goals, challenges, schedule and budget as well as meet your counselor, who will answer any other questions you may have.
Here’s what to do next
What’s on the course
Take our Relationship Assessment
We've carefully crafted 25 questions based on the best insights from: relationship science, psychology, coaching and philosophy to provide a candid and incisive look at how you perceive your relationship.
The answers are multiple choice and should only take 10 minutes to complete. In answering, it's best not to linger but provide your initial gut-response.
During our introduction we explore your background both individually and as a couple as well as seek to understand your individual personalities and how they come together to create your relationship’s unique personality. Yes (!), did know that like individuals, relationships have their own personality? This discussion always leads to some fascinating discoveries!
We'll also schedule your remaining sessions including your individual sessions, which provide an opportunity for you to candidly reflect on your feelings, thoughts, experiences and how the course is shaping up for you.
Introductions
What is Understanding Partnership? Every relationship is unique: “how we are together” as well as “where we’re headed” is absolutely essential to know for the relationship to thrive. This part of the program helps you understand your own nature and the nature of your partnership so that you can fully enjoy and easily direct your lives together by making your choices and activities intentional. You will learn the dynamic of your relationship and your expectations, which will enable you to maximize positive communication with one another as you process your lives together daily.
How does it help? This part of the course has so many benefits with the primary one being that it helps you both bond deeper and unlock your potential by increasing openness, trust, empathy and communication with one another, which are the foundation of every thriving relationship.
Understanding Partnership
What is Planning Partnership? As with any pre-marriage counseling, we will discuss strategies to manage day-to-day obligations, any potential family planning, crafting individual and joint time, finances, and family as well as your extended community expectations; but, we will do it with an eye to creating a feasible concrete plan that harmoniously brings your lives together and optimizes your daily routines.
How does it help? Helps you move from an individual frame of mind to a team mindset. Seeing the 'us' instead of 'me' in the practical logistics of daily life creates a deep mutual respect and connection to one another with realizing that you can achieve more together than you could individually.
Planning Partnership
What is Cultivating Partnership? In this part of the course, we’ll review and assemble your unique philosophy of partnership that is tailored to your relationship’s specific needs and values, which you will use in approaching important tasks, such as: joint decision-making, affirming each other’s individual and joint goals, resolving conflict, and expressing your appreciation for how each other’s individual growth can fuel your growth together.
How does it help? This module harnesses your growing in solidarity with one another and grounds that solidarity with a set of practical skills that you will use in your lives together every day.It habituates understanding in a way that fosters collaboration and creates more 'highs' (or peak experiences) in your relationship.