For a long time, I believed that even thinking about divorce was a problem. Not just saying it out loud—but allowing the thought to exist at all. If you were in a “good” marriage, you didn’t go there. You stayed committed. You figured it out. You pushed through. But what I’ve seen—in my work and in my own life—is that refusing to consider leaving doesn’t strengthen a relationship. It often keeps it stagnant. There’s a difference between threatening to leave and allowing yourself to honestly...

One of the most common patterns I see in families is this: Someone is struggling—and everyone quietly agrees they’re the problem. It might sound like: “They’re always in a bad mood.” “They’re never happy.” “They’re just difficult.” But that framing misses what’s actually happening. In a functional family, no one exists in isolation. Every person is part of a system. And when one part of a system is off, it doesn’t mean that part is broken. It means something in the system isn’t working. I...

I think we make a quiet but costly assumption in long-term relationships: if we stay together long enough, we will naturally mature. Time passes. Years accumulate. Anniversaries stack up. But time does not create maturity. We all know adults who are older but not mature. The same is true in marriage. A couple can be together for 15 years and still fight like they did in year two. Still react defensively. Still blame. Still avoid. Staying together is not the same as growing up together....