How therapists harm marriages and what we can do about it

Two dangers now face married people who seek therapy as individuals or as couples. The first danger is individually trained therapists who are incompetent in working with couples. The second is therapists, whether competent or not, whose individualistic value orientation leads them to undermine marital commitment when the marriage causes distress for an individual. In our consumer culture, some therapists follow the cultural script that regards marriage as a lifestyle to be abandoned if it is not working for either of its customers. We need a searching discussion in the field about how to address our complicity in unnecessary divorces, and a series of reforms to improve how marital problems are treated in clinical practice.