Marriage Checkup: ABC talks about the NIH grant

Back in mid-November I wrote about the "Marriage Check-up." ABC picked up the story about the NIH funded grant yesterday and did a spot on it. You can watch the video here.

Getting a Marriage Check-up seems like a good idea to me. My only question is, what does an annual visit to a therapist mean? Are we talking one visit one time a year or a month worth of visits for a whole year? One visit one time per year sounds great. Who couldn't benefit from that?! If it's more than one (unless, of course, a major issue surfaces), I hesitate. It seems like too much work, especially if you're communicating with your spouse regularly and there doesn't seem to be a problem. Spending the cash and time to go to a marriage counselor for a month seems excessive. Would love to hear other people's take on this, but this is my initial reaction. © 2008 - Brianna Sylver - All rights reserved

Regardless, it seems like a marriage counselor could create a niche for themselves in this area if he/she wanted. What a great way to drive business! The first session, the actual "check-up", (please note that this is one session in my mind) is 1/2 off. Get the check-up. Find out what's not working, then pay the big bucks to have someone help you fix it. It seems like a great way to create new clientèle in a manner that offers true value to its user (the husband and wife seeking counseling).

Of course, this is all contingent on whether or not there is a reliable assessment of what the true health of a relationship is from the start. I believe this is what Dr. James Cordova is working on. I'm interested in checking out his book, The Marriage Checkup: A Program for Sustaining and Strengthening Marital Health, when it's released in Spring 2009.

To be continued...

© 2008 - Brianna Sylver - All rights reserved