People who work with marriage education have so much to say about it that it is sometimes hard to find a summary of the basics: What is it? Does it work? How? Who needs it? How is it different from therapy or pastoral counseling?
That last one is still a widespread and tragic misunderstanding. Couples don't know about marriage education or don't explore it because, as they say, "We tried counseling." And legislators and policymakers, even those trying to encourage people to get help for their marriages, often don't understand that it isn't "counseling" and can be delivered by trained lay people.
Seth Eisenberg of PAIRS, one of the leading marriage education curricula, addresses this need in his new article, "The ABCs of Marriage and Relationship Education".