Marriage Check Up

Here is an interesting idea I read recently in a psychology magazine: what if couples would go to see a marriage counselor for an annual marriage “check-up” similar to our annual physical exam?

Do you think we would have more satisfying, stronger marriages if we went in regularly for a little “fine tuning”? It could play out like this:

A couple could think about the past year, where they have been, what they have done, how they felt. They could come up with a satisfaction scale (score from 1 to 10) that considers an overall “happy” score, a score for the difficulties in the past year and a score for “how we coped with the toughies (or how they handled the difficult times). The couple could then take these scores and work together to come up with an overall score they can both agree on.

This would be sort of like lab results which they could take to their “check-up” session with a couple’s counselor. The counselor could give feedback, support and preventive “marriage” health advice. Do you think doing this each year, say on or near your anniversary might help to strengthen the bonds of your marriage?