Every new parent worries. You check whether the baby is breathing. You wonder if that cough means something. You replay a moment from the afternoon and decide you handled it wrong. That's the job, and some amount of it is what a nervous system is supposed to do when it's suddenly responsible for someone so small.

Premarital counseling is structured time with a therapist to talk through the parts of a shared life that don't come up on their own. It's designed for couples who are engaged or seriously committed, and it works best before anything has gone wrong.

Couples therapy if you are not married is ordinary, common, and in many cases better timed than the version that happens years later.

How to use a consultation to find the best couples therapist