Relationship coaches
Couples who have argued about the same thing for years, with the same script and the same ending. People deciding whether to stay. Someone out of a separation who does not want to repeat the choice. And relationships that are not romantic: the boundary with a parent, the sibling you share the care of someone with, the business partner who became an adversary.
The fight is almost never about what the fight is about. What gets examined is the sequence — what sets it off, what each person hears in what the other said, the point where the conversation stops being about the problem and becomes about who is right — and each person is asked to say what they want, instead of repeating what they can no longer stand. There are situations where this is not the right resource: violence, addiction or a psychiatric crisis call for clinical care, and a serious professional stops and refers.
