"A variety of studies show that couples counseling is around 80% to 90% successful in terms of client satisfaction. "Success" has various meanings, ranging from improved communication and connection to amicable divorce and better co- parenting. For a comprehensive discussion, see Couple therapy in the 2020s: Current status and emerging developments by Jay Lebow, Douglas K. Snyder. A subset of marriage counseling clients neither improve nor divorce."
"This subset is smaller in my practice than in those of colleagues with whom I've conferred, only because I specialize in chronic resentment, anger, and emotional abuse. When clients are finally relieved of those symptoms, they're typically eager to improve their lives. Still, I've had a score of clients in my 40-plus years of practice that fit the attrition model of marriage."
Couples counseling yields high client satisfaction, often 80–90%, with "success" including improved communication, connection, amicable divorce, or better co-parenting. A subset of clients neither improve nor divorce, staying in loveless marriages because of financial constraints and a desire to shield children from divorce-related stress. Specialization in chronic resentment, anger, and emotional abuse tends to reduce that subset because symptom relief motivates change. Some partners conflate familiarity with comfort, remaining in a "comfort zone" that is actually a "resignation zone" characterized by toleration rather than closeness. Thoughtful, honest answers to three specific questions can help partners escape the resignation zone.
Read at Psychology Today
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]