Bristol and Levi: Making It Work With Counseling?

(July 14) -- Not only are Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston back together and engaged, but Alaska's most famous young lovers vow to get it right this time.

The pair who were thrust into the spotlight when her mom made a run for the U.S. vice presidency tell Us Weekly magazine they will seek marriage counseling and abstain from sex during their engagement. They already have a son, Tripp, and said they hope to tie the knot within six weeks.

Seeing Palin, 19, Johnston, 20, and cherubic 18-month-old Tripp dressed up in matching white outfits for a family portrait -- albeit on a magazine cover -- one almost forgets that the pair broke up in a messy public fashion and battled for custody of their infant son. Or that Johnston told Vanity Fair that Palin's mom, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was an absentee parent who rarely cooked -- or even hunted! (The elder Palin counter-dissed that Johnston, who posed for an ill-advised Playgirl shoot, was a "Ricky Hollywood" and "heartbreaking" aspiring porn star.)

Though flashing a new engagement ring, Bristol Palin has not forgotten about those burns, according to Us Weekly executive editor Caroline Schaefer, who said the couple will go to therapy.

"Bristol feels very angry, still, about some of the things (Johnston had said about the family,)" Schaefer said on NBC's "Today" show. "They are ready to get married, but she does say, you know, we'll probably see a marriage counselor."

Though the last time they were engaged, she was 17 and pregnant, and he was chewing gum onstage at the Republican National Convention and declaring himself a "f------ redneck" on his MySpace page, experts say their rocky past doesn't have to work against them. In fact, the couple's openness to counseling could be a positive first step toward a happy marriage.

"It's an excellent sign," Rachel Sussman, a New York marriage therapist, told AOL News. "Research shows that the earlier a couple comes in for counseling, the better the chance that good work can get done."

Though most young couples don't have speaking engagement deals like Palin, or appear in pistachio nut ads like Johnston, therapists say the two aren't alone in their desire to seek professional help at the beginning of their marriage.

"It's something that's very popular today," marriage counselor Harriet Pappenheim, author of "For Richer or Poorer," told AOL News. "There is a 50 percent divorce rate, and young people today know that. They're cautious and scared, and they should be.

"People who are in love and who have problems with one another are very brave and courageous for going to counseling," she added.

But before Bristol Palin rides off into the sunset on Johnston's four-wheeler -- she with her engagement ring and he with his possibly no-longer-regrettable "Bristol" tattoo -- they will have to address the feuding between Johnston and his new fiance's family. Johnston told People magazine he has privately and publicly apologized to Sarah and Todd Palin, saying a lot of his criticism of them was not true.

Still, the Palins stopped short of congratulating the happy couple in a vague statement today, saying their daughter "believes in redemption and forgiveness to a degree most of us struggle to put in practice in our daily lives."

In other words, the Palins may not be blessing Bristol's union, which would not bode well for the Palin-Johnston marriage, according to Angelle Richardson, a therapist with the Council for Relationships in Philadelphia.

"They're a young couple. They definitely could use the family support," Richardson told AOL News. "If you don't have family support, that can cause a lot of stress and you can feel very isolated."

Richardson suggests family therapy might help the engaged couple and the Palins "get to the root of the problem" as opposed to just, perhaps, "putting lipstick on a pig."

"I've seen many couples get back together, and each person says they've changed. More than likely, it's not true," Sussman said.

Her advice for the Johnstons-to-be? Ditch the limelight and head to the therapist's couch.

"Go to counseling and really get serious," she said. "Roll up your sleeves and see if you can do the work to solve these problems."