Saving a Marriage

Can one spouse save a marriage?  The short answer is yes.  It can happen.  It happens all the time. In fact, the reason that I take a “one spouse” approach in my practice is because I believe saving a marriage almost always starts with just one spouse. Why? Because when a couple is in conflict… Read More

When I started my Marriage SOS practice decades ago, I did so with the firm belief that people who are looking for marriage help should have a choice. That doesn’t just mean a choice between psychotherapy or mediation-based help or coaching, it also means a choice between religious or non-religious help. While my practice is… Read More

Every year as Christmas approaches, the inevitable questions begin to arise in households not just across the country, but around the world. “Do we really need to go to your mother’s house?” “How long do we have to stay?” “What if your uncle gets drunk?” “What if your sister says something rude to me?” Or… Read More

Marriage problems are bad enough; however, when one spouse feels like they’re in it alone – perhaps their partner is involved with another person or overly self-involved – it’s even more difficult.  And unfortunately, this isolating and difficult situation often makes people all too eager to accept simplified solutions…or perhaps more accurately, the false promise… Read More

After I graduated from law school, I thought I had all the answers. I was trained to be an adversarial thinker – I mean, just think of any legal case. So-and-So “versus” So-and-So. The “versus” says it all. When you’re faced with marriage problems, the same kind of adversarial tone can easily set it –… Read More

By Special Contributor Don Macleod. We’ve all seen a movie about high-powered corporate type who joins a big company and meets the boss at a corporate function. To impress the boss, he shakes his hand and then gestures to the appropriately gown-clad woman at his side, and says, “May I introduce my lovely wife, sir.”… Read More

In many cases, couples’ counselling can be the final nail in the marital coffin. Why? Well, for one reason, counselling is a practice that inherently focuses on the self – on past hurts, personal feelings and fulfilling one’s own needs over the course of numerous weekly sessions. Or, if I’m being cynical, at least until… Read More

As a former divorce mediator and a current marriage conflict specialist, I know that people tend to make a lot of assumptions about how divorce will and won’t change their lives. Here, I’ve presented eight of the most common assumptions that, if you’re considering divorce, you might be making. Yes, they’re blunt. But so is… Read More

Got a minute? Good. Let’s see how you can start to improve the dynamics in your marriage right now. It’s like this: there are sixty seconds in your day that are absolutely pivotal in terms of how you and your spouse will relate to each other for the entire day and night. These sixty seconds… Read More

You’ve probably heard the expression, “The best defense is a good offense.”  This is known as the strategic offense principle of warfare.  The general idea is that taking a proactive stance to defeat your enemy, rather than passively waiting for your enemy to attack, is more likely to result in victory. As it is in… Read More

By Special Contributor Don Macleod. How does a modern man manage to keep his wife happy, raise happy and healthy kids, and be happy himself? How does he keep his shit together so that he can be one of those guys who gets to walk hand-in-hand on the beach with his wife at 80 years… Read More