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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Marriage counselling... To end it?

22 replies

Notallitseemstobe · 12/10/2019 23:49

My marriage is at the stage where I do not wish to sleep with him, ever again.

I'm not attracted to him for emotional reasons and a history of him making me feel undesirable and unworthy of taking time to please.

We are muddling along as parents, but it can't last forever and it will need to end sometime soon. I don't want it to come as a shock, and I want him to understand that it's not redeemable.

He's agreed to counselling as a couple, has anyone done this but with reconciliation not as the intended outcome?

OP posts:
Rainbowhairdontcare · 15/10/2019 14:03

My DH did it. He says they were in and out in 15 mins. The Relate lady told them that he had already checked out and there was nothing left to be done.

As far as I know it actually didn't help his exW to go through divorce but that's all I know

redbrix · 15/10/2019 16:06

We've just started marriage counselling, having decided we need to try everything to save our marriage due to the disruption it will cause the dc if we separate.
However, I sort of know it's beyond saving. I know I don't love him anymore, nor do I see a future with him. Maybe that could change with counselling, I guess I'll see. I also know I'll have tried everything before giving up.

ByeByeMissAmericanPie · 15/10/2019 16:30

I think the counselling thing will depend on who you end up with counselling you...

I'm mid way through our second counsellor, trying to sort out the marriage... but I think I've really checked out.

First therapist really wound DH up, and this one seems to be doing the same to me.

IDontBelieveYou · 15/10/2019 16:31

Marriage counselling to counsel you through your relationship is a thing. Not everyone does it but some do.

FabLaura · 15/10/2019 16:39

DH and I went to discuss his anxiety (not because either of us wanted to separate) thought I'd post though as within a couple of sessions the Relate lady told me why our relationship worked. It was a lightbulb moment. She said you're with him because of x and he's with you because of x. Was very interesting to learn what I need from a partner. So I would say bare with it for a few sessions at least. You could learn something that will see you through this relationship or your next one

Notallitseemstobe · 15/10/2019 17:01

Thank you, that's what I'm wondering.

Truth is, I'm checked out

OP posts:
RandomMess · 15/10/2019 19:45

I would go but Make sure either 2nd or 3rd session you admit you have checked out then continue as a means of sorting the future of co parenting out?

Hopoindown31 · 15/10/2019 19:53

Individual counselling is probably more appropriate.

Pinkbonbon · 15/10/2019 20:00

Why waste the money. You sound like you want to make it about closure, he doesn't sound the sort that will let you do that. Chances are he'll just use the counciling to make you feel even shittier about yourself. Eg: 'I agreed to this because I want to work on our marriage. Now you dont want to? You're the one that isn't making the effort. You're the one that doesn't care'.

Sack that. Save your money. 'It's over' and start the proceedings. He'll get it eventually. IF he wants to. And if he doesn't, tough shit for him.

Notallitseemstobe · 15/10/2019 22:53

I went to individual therapy to work out why I was feeling the way I was. Made me realise the marriage isn't working, I don't love him and the thought of sex with him repels me.

But we pretend every day that things are OK.

OP posts:
RandomMess · 15/10/2019 22:59

Why do you feel like you can't tell him that it's over for you?

Rainbowhairdontcare · 16/10/2019 08:27

I was were you are when I got divorced . Although he had repulsed me for years to the point I thought I was asexual.

In the end after many ultimatums I couldn't handle anymore and said the marriage was over. Maybe just do the same.

CursedDiamond · 16/10/2019 09:19

My parents divorced when I was a teenager. My ExDP's have stayed together, in a miserable, co-dependent marriage that i think they think works for them, but probably would have been healthier for everyone (certainly my lovely former MiL) if they had split up about 20 years ago.

What I realised about this situation recently, when ex and I split, is what it had taught us both about relationships. I knew that while break ups really suck, especially ones when you've been together for over a decade like we had, my parents splitting up had taught me some valuable lessons. I can see that everyone is basically better off after, and able to get along reasonably well. There is life after, and sometimes, it's for the best.

He, in contrast, learnt that you stay with someone regardless, out of commitment, habit, loyalty, whatever - and try and 'work it through', even though he has no idea how to do that, and his idea of it is to just do more activities together rather than actually talk about problems. He thinks, i think, that all relationships are just a bit shit a lot of the time, but you don't split up because you 'love each other', even though I don't know that he really knows what love is - he certainly has only really learnt to express it since i broke up with him.

Anyway, my point is...don't stay together for your children. They will learn good lessons from this if you deal with it healthily.

It's also extremely difficult to engage with repairing a relationship that feels over for you. I wanted to talk, and go to counselling. My ex wouldn't. Now he does, now that we're over - but i (like you) had gone to counselling on my own, worked out how i felt and why, and was done with the whole thing. I feel pretty adjusted to it, and emotionally quite stable, albeit it a bit sad that it didn't work out, while he is devastated, and doesn't understand, still, why we've split up. Maybe counselling to leave would help your OH understand things and make the split more amicable. I just got to the point where I felt like I couldn't make the commitment to try again that he wanted - so i felt going to counselling together was disingenuous. but then he also doesn't really understand counselling and seems to think it's a magic wand that can 'make you' feel certain things (counselling would make me fall in love with him again, just like he's convinced that the counsellor talked me into the split in the first place...)

NewLevelsOfTiredness · 16/10/2019 11:22

To answer directly yes - me and my exwife, many years ago. I thought we were going to save it. She had checked out. It made it easier to process for me. We were very young and it was best for both of us - she could see that before I could!

My partner and her ex too. They'd been together thirteen years, two kids. He simply wouldn't accept it. She did go with the idea that it might be saveable, but to be honest I think she was where you are but not as ready to admit it. It took three sessions, and it was her ex who saw that it was only going one direction and offered to move out.

They won't try and force you to stay together. I think for me, all those years ago, and my partner's ex more recently, it did help us accept it was over.

HappyHedgehog247 · 16/10/2019 11:25

Therapy can help navigate and negotiate the ending if you find a therapist willing to do that. It depends if your h would engage with that.

marl · 16/10/2019 11:53

I'm in the middle of this. I went independently and when the therapist realised the importance of my work which depended on shared childcare and my worries about emotional impact of splitting on our children she suggested couples therapy with her. She saw DP twice to even things up and then we have had several sessions. It is costing a bomb but I think in truth I have actually very much checked out. I checked out physically about a year ago. The counselling is allowing him to air concerns that I 'thought' he was thinking but I didn't know for definite. It is making it clearer to me that he is even more dysfunctional than I thought - though at times I doubt myself because she keeps trying to bring everything back to my upbringing which wasn't great re male role models. It may help us to split up with clarity I guess. I do worry that issues are being aired that I don't really want to take on mentally myself, so I'm not sure if I should just officially check out now. When you do therapy as a couple it seems that the 'problems' have to be distributed in an 'even handed' way - I wonder if this is different from just 'couples counselling'? I'm sure if you scratch the surface of most of our upbringings it's possible to attribute all present actions to this but I'm not sure how helpful that is to getting to the problems in a relationship. Maybe I'm also using the sessions to build up a case against him in my mind which is an expensive way of doing it!! Very interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this thread - thanks for starting it OP.

Lockshunkugel · 16/10/2019 12:20

If you are completely sure that the marriage is over, isn’t it better to get legal advice and tell him you want a divorce?

vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 16/10/2019 12:27

I'd do this.

Similar here - we've been to counselling a couple of times - he tries for a month or two, I begin to think "it'll be ok" and then he reverts to type.

His "type" behaviour is not what I want to live with.

This thread has got me thinking. Hadn't realised that I have given up, but, I have. Perhaps another load of counselling would be useful - for me, to figure out how to end it.

MrsTumbletap · 16/10/2019 13:59

I thought I was done or almost done, and we did it as a last resort. It was really good.

She asked us in the first session, do you want to split up? does one of you want to? Do you both want to stay together etc? So we said how we were feeling from the word go.

Just six sessions made me see that I was contributing to the unhappiness, and it wasn't all DH, like it thought. I saw a different side to DH, he opened up a bit more and he worked on things she recommended. We both did. He changed some of the behaviours that I found so frustrating, I did too. Things are a lot better now.

Our counsellor was amazing, I would recommend her to anyone.

RandomMess · 16/10/2019 14:08

My marriage came back from the brink (I had arranged accommodation etc).

I think if you do some with a good and recommended therapist then you know 100% you tried everything you could. At the very least you will hear each other's issues and perhaps learn to communicate more constructively.

RandomMess · 16/10/2019 14:21

I had completely checked out and after deciding to try again and committing to 2 years (had been 4 awful years and didn't expect it to improve overnight) it was massively better and another 3 years on I am fully checked in and he would be my number 1 choice to go on holiday with.

LenoVentura · 16/10/2019 14:27

DH and I went to counselling for a specific issue. The therapist said it was unusual for couples to get into counselling when neither wanted to separate and both were committed to the relationship. Usually it's about helping one of them to come to the realisation that the other has checked out and wants to move on. In effect, one of them knows the relationship is over but the other doesn't or doesn't want it to end.

It worked for us, we resolved our issue and are still together, as was our intention.

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