Menu
Do you or your partner feel conflicted about staying or leaving the relationship? You might fear that your relationship is on the brink of ending, with everything feeling fragile and tense, like you’re constantly walking on eggshells. Or maybe you feel trapped, torn between wanting to leave but feeling unable to, or wanting to work on the relationship but sensing your partner’s reluctance?
If you and your partner are contemplating divorce and seeking guidance, our discernment counseling offers a unique approach to help you decide the future of your relationship. This process helps couples determine if their issues can be resolved or if separation is the best path.
FEATURED IN
At the Bay Area CBT Center, we know relationships can be complex and challenging. Sometimes, you and your partner might find yourselves at a critical juncture, unsure whether to keep working on your relationship or to part ways. This period of uncertainty can be stressful, emotionally draining, and affect every part of your life.
Our specialized counseling service is designed to help couples gain clarity, make informed decisions, and move forward with confidence—whether that means recommitting to your relationship or separating amicably.
Discernment counseling, or discernment therapy, is designed to help you and your partner gain clarity and understanding about your marriage and the ideal path forward.
Unlike traditional marriage counseling, which focuses on resolving conflicts and improving relationship dynamics, discernment counseling aims to help you clarify if your relationship issues can be addressed and how you want to move forward. This approach is particularly beneficial for couples where one partner is contemplating divorce, and the other wishes to stay together.
Discernment therapy offers three different paths for couples: continuing with your current situation, pursuing divorce, or dedicating six months of intensive work to salvage the marriage.
By focusing on these options, discernment therapists help you and your partner decide whether to end the marriage, establish a plan to save it, or postpone the decision until you have more clarity. This structured process ensures that both of you can make an informed and confident decision about your future.
INNOVATIVE THERAPIES
Book a free consult with our specialist to assess your needs.
We’ll match you with a therapist who fits your requirements.
If the initial therapist match isn’t ideal, we’ll switch you for free.
At the Bay Area CBT Center, our carefully selected, licensed experts specialize in helping individuals and couples make pivotal relationship decisions. Our counselors provide a supportive environment to explore options, values, and behaviors, ensuring couples gain clarity and confidence in their choices.
Our counselors are trained in evidence-based techniques like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and Schema Therapy. We expertly manage emotions and conflicts, guiding partners with balanced, non-judgmental support. Through reflective listening, guided questioning, and scenario planning, we can empower you to make informed, thoughtful decisions.
Our discernment counseling process is a structured journey designed to help you make informed decisions about your relationship’s future. The process typically involves 2 to 10 sessions, starting with an initial consultation, followed by individual conversations with partners, and culminating in subsequent sessions that build on the initial discussions.
This crucial step allows both of you to discuss your goals and concerns, helping the discernment counselors gauge the primary issues at hand. Joint and individual conversations help understand each of your perspectives, establishing a foundation for counseling.
Providing each of you with dedicated one-on-one space for personal reflection and growth, these sessions focus on understanding your contributions to the relationship problems, increasing self-awareness, and clearly identifying the reasons why the relationship is failing.
These build on the initial consultation and individual conversations, involving further exploration of your dynamic and working towards making an informed decision. Individual time for each of you and conjoint discussions help achieve clarity on the relationship’s future
The aim of discernment counseling is to help you gain clarity and make new commitments towards the future of your relationship by understanding its deeper dynamics and possibilities. This process is not about solving your marital problems but about determining if they are solvable. Our couple therapists treat you with compassion and respect, regardless of your current feelings about your marriage. There are no “bad guys” or “good guys” here.
Our discernment counselors honor your reasons for considering divorce while also exploring the potential for healing the marriage. Emphasis is placed on each of you recognizing your contributions to the issues and potential solutions, which will benefit you in future relationships, whether or not this one continues.
A variety of techniques are utilized in discernment counseling to assist you in gaining clarity and making informed decisions. Accountability exercises encourage you to become more self-aware and responsible for your actions within the relationship.
Identifying schemas and unhealthy patterns within the relationship helps you work towards breaking them and developing healthier interactions. Relationship assignments, such as making a written list of habits to change and tracking values, are also used to improve behaviors for the benefit of your marriage.
Bay Area CBT Center offers a structured approach that helps you feel acknowledged and heard, reducing divorce ambivalence and allowing for clearer decisions about your future. Our process includes separate individual and focused conjoint times with your counselor, helping reduce feelings of confusion and ambivalence.
Enhanced communication is another key advantage, providing a safe and structured environment for you and your partner to express your concerns and feelings more openly. This improved communication is crucial for both those deciding to stay together and those who choose to separate.
At Bay Area CBT Center, our discernment counseling services provide you and your partner with the skills needed for both conscious partnership and conscious uncoupling. As you navigate the decision of whether to stay together or part ways, discernment therapy offers invaluable tools to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
This approach ensures a respectful and dignified transition, no matter the outcome. You will attend sessions as a couple, but the most significant progress often happens during individual conversations with the counselor. This approach recognizes that you and your partner may be starting from different emotional places.
Discernment counseling helps you achieve conscious uncoupling by:
Through discernment counseling, you will develop emotional and communication skills that not only improve your current relationship but also enhance your interactions with others. These skills are beneficial whether you choose to stay together or separate, paving the way for healthier future relationships.
Our goal is to help you make informed decisions that honor both your needs and those of your partner, ensuring a positive and respectful transition, no matter the path you choose.
INNOVATIVE COUPLES THERAPY
Embarking on the path to clarity and confidence in your relationship is simple with our experienced discernment therapists at Bay Area CBT Center.
Reach out to us to schedule an initial consultation, where you’ll have the opportunity to discuss your unique challenges and goals for discernment counseling. This initial session allows our therapists to customize the counseling process to effectively address your needs, ensuring a productive and insightful experience.
Whether you are feeling uncertain about your relationship or seeking a clear direction forward, Bay Area CBT Center is here to support you. Our compassionate and skilled discernment therapists are dedicated to helping you explore your options and make informed decisions about your future. Take the first step towards clarity and resolution today by contacting us to schedule your initial consultation. Your journey to a brighter future starts here.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the Bay Area. You could say we wrote the books on it.
Do not hesitate to reach out. Just fill in the contact form here and we’ll be sure to reply as fast as possible.
2211 Post Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94115
Info@BayAreaCBTcenter.com
415-941-5373
Video and phone consultations offer a convenient alternative for individuals who may not have access to a specialist nearby or prefer to avoid commuting for appointments. Studies have shown that virtual and in-person sessions are equally effective.
