Summary: As opposed to traditional marriage counseling, in which couples deal with their problems with hopes of staying together, a new, more realistic method is gaining traction in the United States. Discernment counseling offers a couple two options for their marital future: resolution or divorce. Couples can see a discernment counselor, who also sets aside time during each session to see both spouses separately, up to five times. Bill Doherty, a professor in the family social science department at the University of Minnesota, summarizes this new relationship therapy by saying, "We basically only see people where divorce is on the table."
Response: Divorce rates are increasing steadily, so a new type of counseling that recognizes and attempts to handle this social trend is quite overdue; however, discernment counseling also gives couples yet another opportunity to think and talk about how awful their marriages are. While I myself I have never been married (had I been, I wouldn't have been able to participate in Junior Miss), I can see how talking about divorce and legitimately considering it would make divorce rates rise. While some couples can benefit from discernment therapy as a vehicle for the safe disassembling of a dilapidated relationship, others may find themselves bringing an unnecessary end to a salvageable marriage.
Diane Mapes, . "Should we call it quits? A new kind of
couples' counseling." msnbc.com. MSNBC News,
n.d. Web. 3 May 2012.
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