Discernment Counseling
For Couples on the Brink of Divorce
If you or your spouse are considering divorce but are not completely sure that’s the best path, you are in a tough spot. And Discernment Counseling is designed for you. It’s a chance to slowdown, take a breath, and look at your options for your marriage.
Discernment counseling is a different way of helping couples where one person is leaning out of the relationship, unsure that ordinary marriage counseling would help, and the other is leaning in, still interested in rebuilding.
I help you decide whether to work toward restoring your marriage to health, move toward divorce, or take a deliberate pause and decide later.
What it is, and what it isn't.
Discernment counseling is not couples therapy. The goal is not to solve your marital problems. It is to see whether they are solvable.
I want to help you gain clarity and confidence about a direction, grounded in a deeper understanding of your relationship and what its future could hold. You will each be treated with compassion and respect no matter how you are feeling about the marriage. There are no good guys and bad guys here.
How the sessions work.
You come in as a couple, but the most important work happens in the one-to-one conversations I have with each of you. Why? Because you are starting in different places.
I respect your reasons for considering divorce while keeping open the possibility of restoring the marriage.
I emphasize the importance of each of you seeing your own contributions to the problems and the possible solutions. This will be useful in future relationships even if this one ends.
Discernment counseling is brief by design: a maximum of 5 meetings that last between 90-120 minutes. You will decide at the end of each session if you would like to book the next.
Is this the right fit?
Discernment counseling is not suited for these situations:
When one spouse has already made a final decision to divorce
When one spouse is coercing the other to participate
When there is danger of domestic violence.
Discernment counseling ends when we determine which of the three paths is right for you.
Three Paths.
Path One:
Take a deliberate pause and decide later
Path Two:
Move towards divorce
Path Three:
Restore your marriage to health.
"The goal is for you to gain clarity and confidence about choosing a path, based on a deeper understanding of your relationship and its possibilities for the future."
Lets talk.
The first step is a free 15 minute consultation, where we can see whether this process fits your situation.