The Marriage Counseling Blog

“I thought no matter what went wrong, we loved one another and that would be enough. We’d figure it out.” Shelly said during his final session of couples counseling.

Shelly thought her marriage was impervious to problems because of the love she felt for husband. But here they were, headed for divorce after 4 years of marriage. She married Pete when they finished college and thought to herself, “Okay, college, done. Marriage, done.”

Several years into the marriage, she knew something was wrong. Pete was never home and when he was, they barely spoke. He was consumed with his career at an ad agency and Sarah’s focus remained on an intensive charity work.

“We just seemed like two different people, suddenly. Everything he believed in seemed alien to me and visa versa. We were suddenly on two very different paths…or maybe it wasn’t so sudden after all.”

Shelly, like many others, entered into marriage without truly examining the two different paths they were on. She felt the love they felt for one another would eventually guide them and while that’s a nice theory, it doesn’t always hold water. Pete and Sarah didn’t take the time to look a the big picture. What did they want with their lives? Where were they going? Did they want to form a family? Did they have similar belief systems?

Pete and Sarah decided to get a divorce. After a year of counseling, it was clear that too much distance had formed between the two and they ultimately didn’t feel like they had a lot in common.

“If I had to do this all over again, I would have looked at things more practically.” said Pete.