About Pre-Marital Counseling
Pre-Marital Counseling in Santa Monica & Los Angeles
The best time to build a strong relationship is before the pressures of marriage, shared finances, and possibly parenthood fully arrive. Pre-marital counseling gives couples the tools, conversations, and self-awareness to begin married life with a real advantage.
Dr. Sally Hackman, PhD, MFT, offers pre-marital counseling for couples in Santa Monica and throughout Los Angeles who want to enter this next chapter with their eyes open knowing each other more deeply, having navigated difficult conversations before they become difficult moments, and building a shared vision for the life they want to create. Many couples comes to therapy having never discussed things like setting up their finances whether or not to have children and how many and even how they view a marriage. Partnership a leader, and a follower, yours and mines versus ours and so on. Pre marital counselling can help avoid these difficulties later.
Key Points
Invest in Your Future Together.
Empowering Resilience
Pre-marital counseling helps couples identify potential sources of conflict before they arise finances, family, parenting, intimacy, values and develop the communication tools to navigate them when they do.
Healing Space
A supportive, non-judgmental space to have the honest conversations that are sometimes hard to have on your own and to enter marriage with greater confidence and clarity.
Transformative Support
Dr. Hackman helps couples understand how each partner's family of origin and personal history will shape the marriage and how to use that understanding as a resource rather than a source of conflict.
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU
Your Future Together Matters.
Pre-marital counseling is not about fixing problems it is about investing in the relationship before problems arise. Couples who seek counseling before marriage consistently report stronger, more resilient relationships.
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Years of Couples Work
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Serving Santa Monica Continuously
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Confidential — Always
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First Session Free If You Don't Return
FAQ
Common Questions
It varies by couple. Some couples stop the work in 6-8 sessions; others prefer a longer engagement. Dr. Hackman discusses your goals and tailors the number of sessions accordingly.
Common topics include communication styles, conflict resolution, finances, family expectations, parenting intentions, intimacy, career and life goals, and how each partner's family history may influence the marriage.
Not at all. Most couples who come in are doing well and simply want to build a strong foundation before marriage. Think of it as preparation rather than repair, similar to how people train before a marathon rather than waiting for an injury.
There's no single right time, but many couples find it most useful several months before the wedding, once the excitement of planning has settled and there's room for deeper conversations. Some start even earlier, especially if they're navigating a move, blended families, or major life changes together.
Yes, and it's often especially valuable in that situation. Dr. Hackman helps couples talk through what they learned from previous relationships, how those experiences shape expectations this time, and how to build something new together rather than repeating old patterns.