Welcome to the awesome marriage podcast. I'm your co-host, Christina Dodson. This is an Ask

Dr. Kim segment where people submit their questions for Dr. Kim Kim, and he answers them.

Thanks for listening.

Welcome today to this awesome marriage instant classic podcast. This is a podcast that aired last

year that we wanted to highlight again because we know so many

of you find yourself in this situation. In this episode, Christine and I talk about what to do if you

think you need marriage counseling, but your spouse isn't on board. Please enjoy this awesome marriage

instant, classic podcast. Today is an Ask Dr. Kim segment on the Awesome Marriage podcast and I'm really excited

about what we're going to be talking about today. Today the question that was submitted is my

husband is not open to counseling, but I think we need it. What do I do? So we end up seeing this a lot

here at Awesome Marriage. We get a lot of emails, a lot of chats about this issue where one spouse

wants to go to counseling, but the other does it because either they don't want to put forth the effort, they're concerned about the cost of counseling, or they just don't think that they or believe that they need counseling.

So Dr. Graham, what do you think? Can you force your spouse to go to marriage counseling with you? Is that the answer here?

No. I mean, I don't think it is. I mean, I guess you could force someone. I was trying to think, I was thinking through the thing about this question. Has anybody ever forced their husband? Maybe, maybe it was kind of an ultimatum. It probably didn't go real well because they're there. you know, you want them at least to be open to the process, you know? And I think a lot of it is that

sometimes guys are just afraid

of counseling we don't talk about our feelings well anyway and we think okay

you see something in the movies and somebody's laying on the couch

talking to someone pouring their guts out well they may be afraid that that

would be them or that they'll start getting emotional or cry or something.

So I think there's a lot of fears that can go with it. But it's not a good idea to force someone to go

to counseling. Yeah, they kind of have to want to be there in order for it to be effective, I think,

or at least to be open to the idea that it might be fruitful, that it might be beneficial. But I do think the only

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