Service

Couples on the BrinkDiscernment Counseling

Discernment Counseling is designed for mixed-agenda couples, with a goal of determining if problems can be solved.

• In Discernment Counseling the main work occurs in 1:1 sessions. Couple time together is deliberately low-key and minimal compared to the time spent 1:1 with the counselor.
• The counselor will help you decide whether to try to restore your marriage to health, move toward divorce, or take a time out and decide later.
• The goal is for you to gain clarity and confidence about a direction, based on a deeper understanding of your relationship and its possibilities for the future.
• The goal is not to solve your marital problems, but to see if they are solvable. You will each be treated with compassion and respect no matter how you are feeling about your marriage at the moment. There is no judgment or seeing one partner as bad and one as good.
• You will come in as a couple, but the most important work occurs in the one-to-one conversations with the counselor. Why? Because you are starting out in different places.
• The counselor emphasizes 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.

There are no interventions or homework, as the couple is not in traditional couples counseling.