A Response to L. V. Harvey's "A Comment on 'An Argument for the Use of Para-Professional Counselors in Premarital and Marital Counseling' "

Trends in Premarital Counseling*

“…Many authors complain about the problem, but none of them presents detailed, concrete proposals for curriculum to overcome the problem. Some counselors have enumerated the skills and attitudes they thought were required of premarital counselors (Tingue, 1958;Horejsi, 1974;Curtis & Miller, 1976;Leight, 1976;Curtis, 1977), but none has approached the extent of Rutledge's (1966) interdisciplinary treatment of the problem. Unfortunately, Rutledge's book is out of print, and much of its content obviously cannot include the past decade's advances in research and theory construction.…”

“…Rolfe (1976) reports that four hours of initial training appeared to be adequate for preparing facilitators to assist small groups of couples in working on the various premarital exercises that were part of Rolfe's program. Curtis and Miller (1976) argue that para-professionals can be trained to effectively handle premarital or marital counseling. However, we believe that the typically less realistic attitudes, shorter relational history, youthfulness, and transitional aspects of the premarital couple create a significantly different counseling situation than that of the couple who has been married for several years.…”