Couples & Marriage » Premarital
Catholic Premarital Counseling in Denver
Evidence-based preparation for engaged Catholic couples — with licensed therapists who understand both the science of marriage and the sacramental call.
Evidence-based preparation for engaged Catholic couples — with licensed therapists who understand both the science of marriage and the sacramental call.
You’re engaged. You’ve picked a date, a parish, maybe a venue. Your families are starting to plan, your fiancé is starting to feel real, and somewhere underneath the excitement is a quieter, more honest question: are we actually ready for this?
Premarital counseling is the answer to that question — not a way to second-guess the engagement, but a way to walk into marriage with your eyes open and your skills built. Decades of research tells us that the couples who do well long-term aren’t the ones who never disagree. They’re the ones who’ve learned how to disagree without breaking each other — and most of those skills can be learned in a few months of focused work before the wedding.
We work with engaged Catholic couples who take the sacrament seriously and want their marriage built on more than good intentions.
Premarital therapy is structured but not rigid. We’ll tailor sessions to what you and your fiancé need. The core areas:
Session 1 — Assessment. We’ll learn about you both: your relationship history, what brought you together, what you’re bringing into the engagement, where you each see strengths and concerns. Each partner usually has a brief solo portion of the assessment.
Sessions 2–6 — Skill-building. The core work. We move through the topic areas above, focusing more time on whichever ones turn out to matter most for you. Homework between sessions is light but real — the skills only stick if you practice them.
Sessions 7–8 (optional) — Integration and wedding-week prep. A landing zone before the wedding. We review what you’ve built, surface any last concerns, and talk about how to use the first year of marriage as another stretch of growth rather than a test.
Most engaged couples meet with us weekly for 4–8 sessions. We can compress for shorter timelines or extend for couples who want more depth.
Most parishes require an inventory like FOCCUS or Prepare/Enrich, plus meetings with a priest or sponsor couple. That work is good and we encourage it — it surfaces topics couples need to discuss and grounds the engagement in the parish community.
Premarital therapy is different work. We’re licensed clinicians, not catechists. Our job is the practical skill-building and pattern-shifting that predicts marital outcomes — the kind of work that requires a clinical lens and protected weekly time. The two efforts complement rather than compete: the parish covers the theology and discernment of the sacrament; we cover the day-to-day skills that will live or die in your marriage.
If your parish requires premarital counseling, we’re happy to coordinate with your pastor or sponsor couple as appropriate.
Where: In-person at our Greenwood Village office (5300 DTC Parkway), or via telehealth anywhere in Colorado. For long-distance engagements where one partner lives outside Colorado, we can sometimes arrange combined formats — ask us about your specific situation.
When: Monday through Thursday, daytime and early-evening slots.
Cost: $155 per 50-minute session. Medicaid accepted (Colorado Access, Rocky Mountain Health Plans). Superbills available for out-of-network reimbursement. See full fees and insurance details.
No. Most parishes require an inventory like FOCCUS or Prepare/Enrich, plus a few meetings with a priest or sponsor couple. That work is good and we encourage it. Premarital therapy is different — it's clinical work with a licensed therapist focused on the practical skills and patterns that predict marital outcomes. The two are complementary.
Most engaged couples meet with us 4–8 times. Some couples want a more comprehensive 10–12 session arc; others come for a focused 4-session block on a specific concern. We'll plan the cadence with you in the first session.
Ideally 3–6 months before the wedding. Early enough that you have time to actually integrate what you're learning; late enough that the issues you'll face as a married couple feel real. If you're closer to the wedding date, we can still help — we'll just shift the focus toward what matters most given your timeline.
Yes. Premarital is couples work; both partners attend each session. Occasionally we meet with one partner individually as part of the assessment, but the core of the work happens together.
Sessions are $155 (the same as our standard couples rate). We accept Colorado Medicaid (Colorado Access and Rocky Mountain Health Plans) and provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement. See our full fees and insurance details on the dedicated fees page.