Nice Description of Why Therapists Are Awesome

From the Sunday New York Times, by Lois Brady Smith

"Susan Holgate and Robert Barron sought counseling when they could no longer talk gently or calmly about money. Even discussing the phone bill led to long, loud fights.

“There was so much strain around who’s making the money, who’s paying the bills,” Ms. Holgate said. “It was a control issue. Like, who’s got the reins?”

“Every couple has their big topic,” her husband added. “Ours was finance.”

Things became even more strained when Ms. Holgate’s career as the vice president for institutional brokerage at E*Trade Financial, the online brokerage house in New York, took off, making her the primary earner.

“Counseling helped me go from resentment to appreciation to thinking, Aren’t I lucky that she’s so lucky and successful,” said Mr. Barron, who was then a business development executive at the Nielsen Company in New York.

That shift in thinking took some time: they saw Dr. Johnson in his West Side office every Wednesday evening for six years.

“If you don’t have a third party acting as a referee, things get so heated you don’t even want to bring them up,” said Mr. Barron, who added: “People go to a tennis pro to improve their tennis game. They go to a ski instructor for their skiing. Why not go to a marriage pro?” "

Full article: Lois Smith Brady article NYT 3/30/08