Sex may permeate our popular culture, but conversations about it are still associated with stigma and shame in Indian households. As a result, most individuals dealing with sexual health issues or trying to find information about sex often resort to unverified online sources or follow the unscientific advice of their friends.
To address the widespread misinformation about sex, News18.com is running this weekly sex column, titled ‘Let’s Talk Sex’. We hope to initiate conversations about sex through this column and address sexual health issues with scientific insight and nuance. In this article, Dr Jain will explain how pre-marital counselling helps build a strong foundation for a successful marriage.
Pre-marital counselling is a type of therapy that helps couples prepare for married life. It can be an extremely beneficial process for couples who want to explore their relationship and work through any issues before tying the knot. Pre-marital sexual counselling is not a new concept. It has been around for years, but it is only recently that it has become more mainstream.
Pre-marital sexual counselling can help couples address any underlying sexual issues before they get married. It can also help them develop a healthy and active sex life, which is an important part of any marriage. If you are thinking about getting married, or are already married, we’ll share some tips on how to prepare for a successful marriage, based on our experience with pre-marital counselling.
What is Pre-marital Sexual Counselling?
Similar to any form of mental health counselling, pre-marital sexual counselling is a type of therapy that helps couples discuss and explore their sexual relationship before marriage. It usually consists of sessions with a therapist, during which the couple discusses their relationship and works on improving communication and conflict resolution skills. It can be beneficial for couples who are having difficulty communicating about sex, have different levels of sexual experience, or have different sexual desires. Counsellors can help couples identify and address potential problems in their relationship, as well as provide tools and resources for a healthy and satisfying sexual relationship.
However, this form of counselling is for serious-minded people. As stated earlier, it’s for people that know that they want to get married to each other and have the desire to make things work. Pre-marital sex counselling involves creating patterns that would make their relationships healthy by addressing problems or issues that the partners might be facing that might be harmful to their bond.
Benefits of Pre-Marital Sexual Counselling
When you are about to get married, pre-marital sexual counselling can provide many benefits. It can help to ensure that you and your partner are on the same page sexually, and can help you to avoid any potential problems down the line.
• Get to know one another: Helps you express your sexual desires clearly. It gives you and your partner advice on how to increase intimacy while you communicate. You’ll get along better if you communicate well.
• Proper sex education: Due to lack of proper sex education, there are a number of misunderstandings about sex. Sex education is not taught in schools, which has resulted in gaps due to incorrect knowledge and misinformation. Proper education will help you debunk misconceptions that have created fear in your heart for sex, especially if you have never had sex before.
• To know your partner’s expectations: Many times, couples fail to communicate clearly about how they want to be satisfied by their partner. They are not always brave enough to communicate their sex ideas. As a result, speaking with a pre-marital sex counsellor will enlighten you on everything you need to know about sex and debunk sex myths. It also teaches you to speak openly about sex with your partner and to discuss your sexual preferences and dislikes.
• To plan for pregnancy: Some partners are usually confused about the entire pregnancy process. From not using condoms or contraceptive methods to not seeing their period and then getting pregnant. This could lead to inexperienced sexual behaviour. It’s critical to understand the fundamentals of condom use, contraception use, the ovulation process, and pregnancy preparations. All of this is done to ensure that you are ready for pregnancy before, during, and after childbirth.
• Knowledge of Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Many couples lack a basic understanding of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and how to prevent them. The pre-marital counselling would help impact knowledge of all these to them.
• Prevent divorce: Pre-marital counselling is an excellent way to prepare for the future and strengthen your commitment to each other before marriage. It will also improve your overall happiness and reduce your chances of divorce when compared to couples who marry without first going through therapy.
In conclusion, pre-marital counselling is to help you and your partner figure out your blind spots and correct them. It will help you with how to communicate your sexual needs and ideas effectively. It will keep you informed about the dangers of pre-marital sex, unwanted pregnancy which has the tendency to cripple your plans and your capacity, STDs, unhealthy sexual attachment and the likes. It can also help you to identify any areas where you may need more education or information. This can be especially helpful if you or your partner have different levels of experience when it comes to sex.
Pre-marital sexual counselling can provide you with the resources and information that you need to make sure that both of you are comfortable and prepared for a great sex life together.
Prof (Dr) Saransh Jain is the winner of the Swasth Bharat Rattan Award and is a Certified and Licensed Sexologist by the American Board of Sexology. He is currently a Senior Consultant at Dr SK Jain’s Burlington Clinic in Lucknow. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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