Monday, July 26, 2010

To Save Your Marriage, Stop Talking!

By Areelitaha Joahlanski

This is going to sound totally illogical at first, but stop and consider whether the way to ultimately save your marriage is to just stop talking to one another as often. Most assume that they need to talk as often as possible if they want to work things out, but the way they end up talking can lead to more harm than good.

A therapist's couch is where most couples end up when the marriage turns sour. They start out angry and upset, and often it is an uncomfortable position to be in that causes a lot of anxiety. Yet, after a few sessions some couples start to become closer again and work out their issues. Others will continue to make the sessions unpleasant and will never work anything out.

So, what makes the difference here between couples that can essentially talk out their problems and others that cannot?

The difference is that the couples who are successful with talk therapy eventually realize that it's not the talking that saves the marriage! It's the process of really hearing what each person has to say and then taking deliberate actions in daily life to fix the problems that ultimately saves the marriage.

The key is listening, not talking. Couples therapists can be a great tool, as long as you use them in the right way. Two people staring bitterly at the floor, breath sucked in tight, waiting for their turn to spill all the dirt and get even with the other person, will likely never work anything out. You have to actually listen to one another.

If you are going to try to talk things out, pay attention to what happens after each session. There will always be some sort of action at every moment of every day, and it's the action after a talk session that will ultimately determine your chances of really working things out. If you both storm to opposite corners or have a huge screaming match, chances are low of coming out successful.

Yet, if you can really listen to one another in the therapists office or even just while sitting down for an honest conversation, then you have a fighting chance. You don't need months of sessions or months of at-home fighting to fix a marriage. What you need is a short period of honest discussion followed by action.

Instead of storming out of such a session with anger, you should storm out thinking of ways to make things better. Then take action! It's what you ultimately do, not say, that is going to eventually save your marriage or allow it to self-destruct and erode even further.

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