The Samaritan Pre-Marriage Seminar

"Marriage as Conversation"

Since 1960 Samaritan Center of Puget Sound has been preparing couples for successful, life-long marriage. Our seminar is designed either to be complete in itself or as a suppliment to the counseling couples may receive from their pastor prior to their wedding.

Join us and explore the challenges of the marriage relationship which, in some ways, can be likened to an ongoing, deeply personal conversation that committed partners engage in throughout their marriage.The seminar's limited size and interactive forma tprovide a safe and enlivening group experience in which couples learn from one another as well as from the group leader.

To help prepare you to engage in this important "conversation," in the seminar you will strengthen your communication and problem solving skills and focus on the most common areas of potential conflict in relationships, including:

 

  • How the families we come from influences our marriage relationship
  • Nurturing intimacy, affection and a healthy sexual relationship
  • Honoring and reconciling differences and areas of disagreement
  • Making decisions about finances
  • Balancing work and leisure, couple and individual time
  • Growing as a couple over time

Registration Information

Seminars begin the first Tuesday of each month and meet for four weeks, either in Seattle or an Eastside location. Each session is two hours long. A minimum of three couples is required for a seminar to be held. The cost is $200.00 per couple.

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In addition to the Pre-marriage Seminar, Samaritan also offers individual marriage preparation in which the couple meets with a therapist for three to six sessions. The fee is negotiated. This is often a good option for couples entering a second marriage.

Samaritan also can provide a Pre=Marriage Inventory which can be used either in the seminar or individual meetings

 

 

Participant Comments

"great ideas for anyone getting married"

“The financial planning was helpful”

“Wish we would have taken this class 3 years ago. I would recommend this to any newly engaged couple I know”

“We still use the exercises – many years later!”

“What was most beneficial was the ability to hear other couples at the same stage of life as myself”

“Talking about communication was really informative– it allowed us to see where we need to work and where our strengths are.”

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Houglum, a marriage and family therapist and ordained Lutheran pastor, has led Samaritan's premarriage seminar since 2000. He can be contacted at 206.527.2273 x 337 or at MHouglum@SamaritanPS.org.

 
   

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