A Happy Married Life: A Guide for Counselors and Faith Leaders Working With Married Couples in Christian and Muslim Communities in Malawi in the Context of HIV and AIDS

This guide is designed for faith leaders and others who provide couples counseling by their church or mosque. The intended audience is trained counselors working in a faith-based setting with married couples or those planning to get married. While the Guide does review key aspects of counseling, it is not intended to train counselors who have no prior training. The guide focuses on working with those about to get married and married couples to build a strong foundation for their union in order to help prevent HIV from entering the home.

Additional information is provided to help counsel discordant couples living with HIV so they can have a healthy and loving marriage.The goal of the guide is to enhance the faith-based response to HIV prevention by providing trained counselors with practical counseling sessions and scripture and verse references to help couples build stronger marriages and avoid bringing HIV into the home, avoid re-infection and protect the uninfected partner.

The objectives of the counseling sessions are to: 1. Give confidence and courage to people planning to get married by helping them choose a partner who is right for them, 2. Improve couple communication and strengthen intimacy between married couples, 3. Assure married partners and those entering marriage that obeying the commands of God is one way to help prevent HIV from entering the home, and 4. Help men and women think through and take responsibility for acting on what they need to do to have a happy family life.

Topics covered include: choosing a partner, the value of marriage, communication, sex in marriage, conflict management, having children, and growing together.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: December 22, 2019