prepare/enrich-premarital

Many couples put much emphasis on the wedding itself! This is exciting, new, and important; however, why not learn more about your fiance's upbringing, what they value, how they perceive finances, and a host of other important factors through premarital counseling? While this approach works well for established marriages, it is it is mostly used for engaged couples.


PREPARE/ENRICH is the leading relationship inventory and skill-building program used nationally and internationally. It is built on a solid research foundation and significantly improves a couple's relationship. PREPARE/ENRICH is custom tailored to a couple's relationship and provides couple exercises to build their relationship skills.


For over thirty years, PREPARE/ENRICH has been the #1 guide for helping couples explore and strengthen their relationships. Built on a solid research foundation, PREPARE/ENRICH has been improved and refined over the years to become one of the best, most effective, easy-to-use relationship assessment tools available. There are over 100,000 trained facilitators who have helped over 3,000,000 couples grow their relationships and solidify their marriages using the powerful tools provided in PREPARE/ENRICH. I am glad to offer this approach to my clients.


This approach utilizes a customized couple assessment completed online that identifies a couple's strength and growth areas. It is one of the most widely used programs for premarital counseling, premarital education, and dating couples considering engagement; hence, "PREPARE." It is also used for marriage counseling, and marriage enrichment no matter how long the marriage has been; therefore, "ENRICH." Based on a couple's assessment results, 6-8 feedback sessions are held in which I help the couple discuss and understand their results as they are taught proven relationship skills.


There are several goals of the PREPARE/ENRICH Program. In order to achieve these goals there are exercises designed to help couples improve their relationship skills. The program helps couples:

  • Explore strength and growth areas
  • Strengthen communication skills
  • Identify and manage major stressors
  • Resolve conflict using the Ten Step Model
  • Develop a more balanced relationship
  • Explore family of origin issues
  • Discuss financial planning and budgeting
  • Establish personal, couple and family goals
  • Understand and appreciate personality differences

What relationship areas are assessed by the Inventory?

  • 12 Relationship Scales -- communication, conflict resolution, roles, sexuality, finances, spiritual beliefs and more
  • 5 SCOPE Personality Scales
  • 4 Couple and Family Scales -- based on the Circumplex Model
  • 4 Relationship Dynamic Scales
  • 30 Customized Scales

Is the PREPARE/ENRICH Program valid and reliable?


An important strength of the PREPARE/ENRICH Inventory is their strong psychometric properties. High levels of reliability and validity have been found for each instrument, making them valuable tools for research as well as clinical use.

  • National Norms based on over 500,000 couples
  • High Levels of Validity and Reliability

PREPARE has validity in that it discriminates premarital couples that get divorced from those that are happily married with about 80-85% accuracy. Reliability is high (alpha reliability of .80 - .85).