Marriage counseling is a scam today. If you are in marriage counseling, you are most likely headed for divorce. They dont track success/failure rates because the numbers are so abysmal.
Much of what passes for “counseling” these days is nothing more than a scam. Case-in-point? I have a friend who’s about my age (early 60s). He has a 40-something daughter who has moved back home, with teenage daughter in tow. Went back to school after her latest divorce, and completed two worthless degrees. Now, with $100K in student loan debt, she’s decided to “focus” on her daughter, during her last year in high school, on the “advice” of her therapist, and delay looking for a full-time job until after her graduation.
Told my friend he should send his daughter to me. My advice to her would be simple: 40 is too old to be living with your parents. You need to get off your lazy duff and find an actual job, one that would allow you to support yourself and your daughter. And if you can’t find something full-time, string together a couple of part-time jobs. And BTW, plenty of parents are able to “focus” on their graduating offspring AND hold down a full-time job. The focus plan is garbage and if your counselor endorses it, they aren’t worth the title.
Also advised my friend to take the deadbeat daughter out of his will. In the event of his sudden demise, it’s a given she would try to take control of the estate and muscle her mother out of the way. Told him you can always put her back in if she grows up and becomes a responsible adult. If she doesn’t, her “inheritance” is all the free rent, utilities and groceries she’s getting right now.
Haven’t heard much from him since offering that advice. But stories like that are being played out across America by the millions, aided and abetted by worthless therapists who tell their clients what they want to hear, and wait for the insurance payments to roll in.