When people hear of marriage counseling or training, they almost always think of relationships that are already showing signs of trouble.
However, recently, there have been outbreaks of so-called “skills training” classes for new couples to undergo. In a published study, the results have shown that while the overall divorce rate for “trained” couples is not any lower, the overwhelming results were that couples were less likely to report their marriages as in trouble.
Given how the divorce rate was unchanged, those results point to couples who are overall happier spending time together, even while undergoing a separation.
According to Seth Eisenberg, President and CEO of the PAIRS Foundation, the results show “more evidence that our work is to help people develop competence in skills that are most effective to sustaining intimacy, while respecting that every person makes their own deeply personal decisions about whether to get married or stay married.”
It is undeniable that undergoing a divorce is an extremely emotional experience, these results show a fascinating trend that trained couples are able to stay amicable and friendly even as they come to the realization that they would both be better off alone.