Maybe it wasn’t a great business tactic on my part, but when I practiced family law, if I had doubts that the client’s narrative really warranted a divorce, I would ask probing questions during the initial consultation. I would point out the consequences of divorce if they hadn’t fully considered them. And I almost always asked if they had tried marriage counseling. To that last point, sadly, many of them had—obviously, without success. I can’t conclude from these instances alone that marital counseling is ineffective; after all, only the ones that don’t work end up in a divorce lawyer's office. But if the success rates of the therapist are not stunningly impressive, perhaps it’s less the fault of therapy and more so because many troubled couples wait too long to engage in the process.