Can anyone recommend a non religious premarital counselor in Des Moines, IA

March 13, 2008 2:07 PM

Can anyone recommend a non religious premarital counselor in Des Moines, IA (or nearby)?

Can anyone recommend a good premarital counselor in or around Des Moines, IA? My fiance and I would like to schedule a couple of sessions. Also, does anyone have a rough guesstimate for pricing regarding such a thing?

We are not very knowledgeable about such things (counseling etc). Feel free to throw out some recommendations regarding the topic. Or hell, feel free to elaborate about marriage in general as well. My Fiance and I are fairly grounded in our lifestyle and have a very stable relationship. We tend to like to be overly prepared for things though. I think premarital counseling would suit us both well.

Thanks in advance AskMe!

posted by unvivid to Human Relations (1 answer total)

You might call the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines (515 244-8603 ). Unitarians are either non-religious, or pan-religious, depending how you look at it and depending on the specific Unitarian, but the counseling you get from them is non-denominational.

Sadly I see that the minister there is away until June, but perhaps the office can recommend another minister in the area. It's probably the kind of question they are prepared to deal with.

My wife and I received excellent (non-denominational) pre-marital counselling from a Unitarian minister. You don't have to be Unitarian or be a member of the church. It will just come down to whether the particular minister offers that kind of counselling and has time.

If you have no specific issues to discuss, then likely any counsellor will run you through a number of scenarios on the topics most likely to cause friction in a marriage and ask each you whether you have already discussed those items, and to describe what you expect in that area.

Our guy also gave us a standardized test to complete, so that he could analyze our attitudes in some areas and compare them. Then he asked questions where he thought we might need further discussion on specific topics.

The number of sessions will vary depending on what you want and how it goes. Nothing is set in stone.
posted by lockedroomguy at 4:05 PM on March 13, 2008