A licensed marriage and family therapist (license MU20809), Tara Fields, PhD, has more than 25 years of experience in clinical practice. Within her private practice in Marin County, California, Dr. Tara Fields offers marriage counseling. She provides individuals and couples with insight and skills to create and sustain healthy relationships.
Dr. Fields says that while some couples contemplating divorce choose to stay together until their children no longer live at home, this approach does not provide a resolution. Rather, it prolongs the problem, creates tension within a household, and causes children question the strength of their family bond.
Fields says that a family therapist would recommend that a couple attend counseling to determine if the issues can be repaired using healthy relationship strategies, such as finding to repair conflict and restore the love that initially brought them together. She adds that if a couple come to the conclusion that the relationship will not work, the therapist can offer methods for uncoupling that will limit the negative impact on the family unit. This would primarily involve communicating that parenting is a team effort and that the children should not be concerned that the split resulted from their behavior.
Dr. Fields says that while some couples contemplating divorce choose to stay together until their children no longer live at home, this approach does not provide a resolution. Rather, it prolongs the problem, creates tension within a household, and causes children question the strength of their family bond.
Fields says that a family therapist would recommend that a couple attend counseling to determine if the issues can be repaired using healthy relationship strategies, such as finding to repair conflict and restore the love that initially brought them together. She adds that if a couple come to the conclusion that the relationship will not work, the therapist can offer methods for uncoupling that will limit the negative impact on the family unit. This would primarily involve communicating that parenting is a team effort and that the children should not be concerned that the split resulted from their behavior.