Pre-Marital Counseling in Los Angeles, CA
Get closer now. Grow stronger together later.
Pre-marital counseling isn’t just about preventing problems. It’s about giving your relationship a solid foundation as you step into a deeper commitment. At Grazel Garcia Psychotherapy & Associates (GGPA), we help engaged and seriously committed couples have the conversations that matter before they become challenges.
Maybe you’re planning a wedding or simply preparing for a shared future. Wherever you’re at, pre-marital therapy gives you the space to connect more deeply, address what’s unspoken, and strengthen the bond you’re building.
Why Couples Choose Pre-marital Counseling
Every couple faces transitions. But when two people come together with different backgrounds, family dynamics, communication styles, and expectations, even the happiest engagement can come with emotional weight.
Pre-marital counseling helps you uncover the invisible scripts you’ve both absorbed about partnership, love, money, family, and intimacy. You don’t have to wait for a crisis to start therapy. Many of the couples we work with feel deeply connected already: They just want to make sure it stays that way.
If you’re asking yourselves how to stay close through stress, conflict, or big life changes, you’re in the right place.
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What You’ll Talk About in Therapy
Each session at GGPA is unique to your relationship. We won’t walk you through a checklist or assign generic worksheets. Instead, we guide you through real, authentic conversations, ones that build understanding and emotional safety.
Together, we’ll explore how you each respond to tension, what roles you tend to take in conflict, and how to stay emotionally connected when things get hard. We’ll also support you in deciding how you’ll handle future plans and life transitions like parenting, finances, religion, cultural differences, or where you’ll live.
We don’t get you to sign a commitment and try to solve everything now. It’s more about knowing how to move through the hard moments with care, honesty, and trust – in a way that brings you closer when things get tough.
Emotionally Focused Therapy for Pre-marital Counseling
At GGPA, we use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) as our primary approach for working with couples. EFT is backed by decades of research and is one of the most effective ways to help partners build lasting emotional connection.
In pre-marital therapy, EFT helps each partner understand and communicate their deeper needs, especially when those needs feel vulnerable or hard to name. Rather than focusing on logistics or skills alone, EFT helps you connect on an emotional level, making those practical decisions easier to navigate together.
We use EFT to help you:
- Understand the patterns you fall into when you’re stressed
- Create more emotional safety and intimacy
- Talk about the hard things without feeling like enemies
- Build a bond that can weather big life transitions
When couples start therapy before old patterns become rigid, they tend to feel stronger, more attuned, and better equipped to deal with whatever life throws at them.
Meet Our Pre-marital Counselors
Pre-marital counseling at GGPA is a chance to slow down, get honest, and build a stronger emotional foundation working with a therapist who’s attuned to your relationship’s story.
We’re a team of trauma-informed, culturally responsive therapists who care deeply about helping couples feel safe, seen, and supported. Each therapist brings a unique lens to their work with engaged couples, while holding EFT at the heart of their approach.
Please note, some of our pre-marital therapists are trained facilitators of the Prepare/Enrich Assessment, which is the gold standard for pre-marital counseling assessments.
Grazel Garcia, LMFT
Grazel is the founder of GGPA and a certified Emotionally Focused Therapist, Supervisor-in-Training and Prepare/Enrich trained. She specializes in working with couples who want to strengthen their relationship before taking the next step. Her approach is grounded, compassionate, and deeply attuned to identity, attachment, and cultural context.
Dr. Tyler Howard, PsyD
Tyler brings a thoughtful and structured presence to pre-marital counseling. With training in both psychology and neuropsychological assessment, she helps couples understand how their unique histories and patterns affect the way they connect. Her work blends emotional depth with practical insight.
Tiffany Cuevas, AMFT
Tiffany’s work is rooted in helping couples navigate life transitions with more clarity, honesty, and mutual care. She supports clients in exploring underlying emotions and creating space for the conversations that often get skipped. Her style is warm, direct, and deeply validating, and she is trained in the Prepare/Enrich Assessment.
Arami James, AMFT
Arami supports couples who want to build a lasting relationship but feel unsure how to talk through the hard stuff. Her presence is gentle, affirming, and curious, especially for those who may feel anxious, overwhelmed, or unsure how to communicate their needs as they step into deeper commitment.
Samantha Lam, AMFT
Samantha brings a trauma-informed, culturally responsive lens to pre-marital counseling. She helps couples look at their emotional and relational patterns with compassion and develop new ways of connecting that feel more secure, respectful, and true to who they are.
Rachel Wiederhoeft, ASW
Rachel Wiederhoeft helps couples prepare for marriage with intention, curiosity, and emotional honesty. Her relational and somatic approach supports open conversations about values, communication, and future hopes. With warmth and cultural sensitivity, Rachel creates space for couples to deepen understanding and build a strong, grounded foundation for their life together.
Is Pre-marital Counseling Right for You?
If you’re about to move in together, get married, or just want to be more intentional in your relationship, pre-marital counseling can help you strengthen the connection you already have. We work with couples of all backgrounds, including interracial, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse partnerships.
You don’t have to have problems to benefit from therapy. Sometimes, the most meaningful sessions happen when things are going well because that’s when you have the energy, the motivation, and the openness to build something even stronger.
Therapy that Meets You Where You Are
Ready to talk? Reach out today to book a free consultation and take the first step toward a relationship that lasts.
Our sessions are available in person in Los Angeles or virtually for couples anywhere in California. Whether you’re just beginning to have deeper conversations or want to clear space for long-term growth, we’re here to walk alongside you.