Couples Counselling for free/cheap

monaleezza

Hey all
I'm planning to get married this year :Tand already don't have the funds to do it the way we'd like it.:(

But before we get married we thought it might be an idea to get some couples counselling.

However I can't find anywhere that offers free or even cheap counselling. The best price I've seen is £60 a session. Which would mean we won't get the chance to discuss any of our issues, let alone repair them.

Does anyone know of any charities or organisations that offer free counselling/therapy to couples who are in need?

TeamLowe

What issues are there that need to be discussed? there's several self help pre marriage books out there if you could sit down together to go through them.

Couples counselling before marriage is more of an American thing tbh, not something that happens often over here from what i understand.

Tenyearstogo

Why are you getting married if you have issues?

Amanda65

If there are issues that need repairing before a marriage, I would seriously invest any funds I had into the counselling first - it could save you a lot of money and heartache in the long run.

ostrichnomore_2

A lot of churches do pre-marriage counselling if you are getting married there. Some may do it anyway (but of course it will have a religious slant).

I thought Relate charge according to income?

Otherwise, can't you just sit down and talk and resolve your issues. The ability to do that is something that can make or break a relationship; see it as a test of how you'll cope as a married couple. If you can't resolve them now between you, then your communication and empathy isn't right, and that should flag up a warning sign. At least it would to me, now, having experienced both types of relationship, those where we could not talk/agree sensibly, and one where we could. I'd never get into a relationship now of the first type, they don't work.

aileth

You haven't said you have any issues, so why try and fix what isn't broken?

Meadows

Not sure why you feel you need counselling before you get married unless there are issues, if there are issues then these need to be resolved before you even think of getting married, they won't go away once married. Are you compatible, are you marrying / together for the right reasons? These are the question you need to address and you should not need counselling if it isn't already broken!

monaleezza

Firstly we're getting married because, we love each other. What a weird question.

Secondly we believe in pre-marriage counselling because we don't want our marriage to fail. 50% of marriages do, I guess my view is prevention is better than cure.

Plus it's general practice in our church to have pre-marital counselling and priests don't marry you unless you've had it.

We are Christians but our church circle is so small we don't wish to have marriage counselling from from a friend or family member. That would be too weird.

Relate don't charge according to income, which was disappointing. And we don't have fund we're saving for marriage, we're just getting married.

If anyone has any more tips or ideas or knows of any contacts I'd be very grateful.

Tenyearstogo

I don't fully understand but I would have thought if you have no issues then talking to members of your church circle shouldn't be a problem.

Could you ask your priest to find someone in an adjoining parish.

Arent professional counsellors are bound by a code of conduct? They should be used to dealing with people they know.

ostrichnomore_2

Ah ok, so there's no real issues at the moment, you want to do the pre-marriage stuff as per churches offer. I actually think those are a great idea. It's so easy to assume you have the same ideas on something and then find out later that you don't, and serious 'issues' are best discussed and agreed up front. Would have saved me a lot of trouble!

If you can't find anywhere more independent than your own church (which I understand totally) you can buy pre-marriage workbooks to go through yourselves. Look on Amazon. If your relationship is solid already I'm not sure you absolutely need someone to lead you through it, you could schedule in your own sessions and do it together.

glitter_fairy

monaleezza wrote: »

Firstly we're getting married because, we love each other. What a weird question.

Secondly we believe in pre-marriage counselling because we don't want our marriage to fail. 50% of marriages do, I guess my view is prevention is better than cure.

Plus it's general practice in our church to have pre-marital counselling and priests don't marry you unless you've had it.

We are Christians but our church circle is so small we don't wish to have marriage counselling from from a friend or family member. That would be too weird.

Relate don't charge according to income, which was disappointing. And we don't have fund we're saving for marriage, we're just getting married.

If anyone has any more tips or ideas or knows of any contacts I'd be very grateful.

I think it is a great idea

what about a different church?