The Common Mistake in Premarital Counseling

The failure of premarital counseling to affect the divorce rate today may be due primarily to the fact that the approach is often directed toward the couple's relationship. The focus on personality, psychodynamics, and transactions has deprived couples of a more enriching perspective from which to evaluate their problems and their future. By switching the focus to the bride and groom's families of origin, not only can premarital counseling be made more effective in its own right, but the very experience also becomes an opportunity to affect more than one couple and far more than one generation.

Edwin Friedman, Generation to Generation