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Office of Family Life

PREPARE/ENRICH

PREPARE/ENRICH is a customized couple assessment completed online that identifies a couple’s strength and growth areas. It is one of the most widely used programs for premarital counseling and premarital education. It is also used for marriage counseling, marriage enrichment, and dating couples considering engagement. Based on a couple’s assessment results, a trained facilitator provides 4-8 feedback sessions in which the facilitator helps the couple discuss and understand their results as they are taught proven relationship skills.

Important Note: Only a trained PREPARE/ENRICH facilitator can receive the results. A listing of trained facilitators is provided on the registration form. If you do not see your priest or deacon listed, please register for the FOCCUS relationship inventory here.

Tell me more about

The goals of the program

The goals of the program
There are several goals of the PREPARE/ENRICH Program. In order to achieve these goals there are exercises designed to help couples improve their relationship skills. The program helps couples:

  • Explore strength and growth areas
  • Strengthen communication skills
  • Identify and manage major stressors
  • Resolve conflict using the Ten Step Model
  • Develop a more balanced relationship
  • Explore family of origin issues
  • Discuss financial planning and budgeting
  • Establish personal, couple and family goals
  • Understand and appreciate personality differences

Areas assessed

Areas assessed
The areas assessed by the relationship inventory are as follows:

  • 12 Relationship Scales — communication, conflict resolution, roles, sexuality, finances, spiritual beliefs and more
  • 5 SCOPE Personality Scales
  • 4 Couple and Family Scales — based on the Circumplex Model
  • 4 Relationship Dynamic Scales
  • 30 Customized Scales

Is the program reliable?

Is the program reliable?
An important strength of the PREPARE/ENRICH Inventory is their strong psychometric properties. High levels of reliability and validity have been found for each instrument, making them valuable tools for research as well as clinical use. National Norms based on over 500,000 couples High Levels of Validity and Reliability PREPARE has validity in that it discriminates premarital couples that get divorced from those that are happily married with about 80-85% accuracy. Reliability is high (alpha reliability of .80 – .85).