The same arguments. The same distance. The feeling that something is fundamentally broken — and time is not on your side. Whether you are the one fighting for this marriage or the one who is almost done — this is where it turns.
You will say things in that room you would never say in the room together. That is the point. Joint sessions where both spouses manage each other hide the truth. I don't work that way.
Independently. Dr. Hines reads both before he meets either of you. He walks in already knowing where the pressure is.
One with each spouse. Private. Direct. The full truth of what each of you is carrying, without an audience.
The real root, named — not just what you fight about. What the work looks like, in what order, and how long it takes. Joint sessions begin only after this.
According to Gottman's research, the average couple waits six years after problems begin before getting help. Six years of the same fight is how distance becomes permanent.
And the alternative is brutal arithmetic: the average divorce runs $15,000 or more — roughly $11,300 per spouse in attorney fees alone — before you count two households, the kids, and everything that doesn't show up on an invoice.
Finding out what is actually wrong with your marriage costs $797. Fighting over the ruins of it costs twenty times that. You are going to invest in this marriage one way or the other. Choose the way that can still save it.
Two assessments. Two honest conversations. One plan for the marriage.
Start — $797