Each April, WAMFT (our local chapter in Wisconsin for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy) presents a two day conference. It is there that I attended a presentation by Lee Raffel, MSW and found her book – “Should I Stay or Should I Go – How Controlled Separation (CS) Can Save Your Marriage”.

This is a book formulated from Ms. Raffel’s 25 years of experience counseling couples and individuals. Written in an easy-to-read and compassionate manner, Ms. Raffel puts forth a structured approach to couple separation as a means to heal a marriage, or to assist a couple in making a reasoned decision to divorce.

In troubled marriages, there may be a decision to separate for a time as a response to a stressful situation – but with no clear goals established, leaving the parties wondering, “What now? Where do we go from here?”

If you are in a trouble relationship, and may be considering a separation, whether you are working with a therapist or not, I recommend reading this book first. It could help to reduce a lot of the anxiety and confusion a trial separation will bring.