For “Hopeful Spouses”
Are you committed to doing whatever it takes to save your marriage, but your spouse says he or she wants a divorce? You are not alone. This is a very common scenario, and sometimes it is possible to work constructively on your marriage even when you spouse will not do Discernment Counseling with your at the present time
The goal of Hopeful Spouse Counseling is to help you bring your best self to your marital crisis in the hope that there will be a constructive outcome, hopefully restoring the marriage but if not, a more cooperative divorce. The Hopeful Spouse counselor will support your desire to save your marriage by helping you learn from this crisis about yourself and the marriage, and engage in healthy, constructive ways to prevent a divorce and restore your marriage to health if that is possible.
Hopeful Spouse Counseling, which is usually between one and five sessions, focuses on
- Learning how to make positive changes that will be healthy for you and may contribute to saving your marriage
- Avoiding common mistakes that make things worse during a marital crisis
- Creating a more collaborative relationship with your spouse even if the marriage ends in divorce
Hopeful Spouse counseling is NOT suitable when
- Someone wants to preserve the marriage but is not willing to look at his or her own contributions to the marital problems
- There is a danger of domestic violence
- There is an Order of Protection from the court