Discernment Counseling for Couples on the Brink of Divorce
Are you and your partner considering divorce but not sure if that is what you both actually want? If you are unsure which direction you want to take in your relationship, then Divorce Counseling, or Discernment Counseling, is designed for you. It’s a chance for you as a couple to slow down, take a breath, and look at the options for your marriage.
Discernment Counseling is a way to help couples where one person is “leaning out” of the relationship—and not sure that regular marriage counseling or sex therapy would help — and the other is “leaning in”—or, interested in rebuilding intimacy and restoring the marriage.
Kristen Lilla will help you work through your thoughts and feelings so you can decide whether to try to restore your relationship, move toward divorce, or take a time out and decide later. The goal is for you both to gain clarity and confidence about which direction to take, based on a deeper understanding of your relationship and its possibilities for the future. Discernment counseling is not intended to solve your marital problems but to see if they are solvable, and if you want to solve them. Kristen is not here to persuade either party to stay married or to divorce, but to help couple’s make a well-informed decision about which path to take their relationship.
You will come to discernment counseling as a couple but the most important work occurs in the one-on-one conversations with Kristen. Why? Because you are starting out in different places. Kristen respects your reasons for leaning towards divorce while trying to open up the possibility of restoring the marriage to health. She also respects your reasons to stay in the marriage despite its current problems. It is important for each person to see their own contributions to the problems, as well as possible solutions.
Discernment Counseling is intended to be short term and goal-oriented. After a maximum of 5 counseling sessions, couples will decide if they want to move into couple’s therapy and work on the marriage, to start the divorce process, or to continue on the current path. The first session is usually 2 hours and the subsequent are 1.5 hours.
