ENGAGEMENT COUNSELING? According to the Los Angeles Times, it's gaining in popularity:

In seminar halls or living rooms, dating couples practice the art of the painful conversation, face cold realities about sex and money, and catalog childhood traumas that might leak into their married life. They examine printouts summarizing their psychological makeup and the weaknesses -- sorry, "growth areas" -- of their relationship. It might not be the kind of love story found in Hollywood movies, but pre-pre-marital counseling responds to a yearning for a more reliable path to marriage. Using tools from social science, it aims to prepare them for conflict, to prevent unions based on blind impulse -- and, ultimately, to reduce a divorce rate as high for religious couples as for other Americans. "What we're trying to teach couples is, `This is romantic,' " said Rob Eagar, an Atlanta-based author and lecturer on Christian dating.