Services

Are you facing stepcouple and stepfamily challenges you never imagined would happen to you? Is love not enough to ease the tension between you and your partner? Do you feel isolated and lonely because your family and friends don’t understand what you’re going through?

You’re NOT alone. Within five years of divorcing, 89 percent of men and 79 percent of women walk down the aisle again, often with children in tow. Combining existing families presents incredible challenges that confuse and frustrate. People need help to sort it out.

There is help for you!

4 WAYS TO GET HELP

1. START WITH MY BOOK, STEPCOUPLING

Stepcoupling: Creating and Sustaining a Strong Marriage in Today’s Blended Family, Three Rivers Press, 2002 is the first book for stepcouples that focuses on the couple’s relationship as the focal point for stability, change and growth.

In this book, readers will learn how to:

• Keep the marriage strong, safe, and growing in the first five critical years
• Cope with negative feelings toward or from stepchildren
• Deal with angry, jealous ex-spouses and biological parents
• Recognize and accommodate different parenting styles and values
• Renew their bond as a couple
• Recognize and deal with individual issues that block healthy stepcoupling

If you want more personalized help...

2. CONSIDER INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS WITH SUSAN WISDOM, LPC

You can schedule personal one on one sessions. During these sessions, I listen and ask questions about your particular situation. I help you put the problems in perspective. Frequently, stepcouple problems, while painful indeed, are normal adjustment reactions people experience as they struggle to get used to the newcomers in their lives. My style is to validate, empathize, and teach simultaneously.

3. STEPCOUPLING BLOG

I host a blog on this website which enables people to communicate with other stepcouples in similar situations. People can share stories and feel understood and supported. I personally post blogs drawn from my own clinical and personal experience. Remember, my husband and I have raised five children in our own stepfamily.

4. TALKS/SPEECHES

I use my experience as a stepparent and a counselor to speak about stepcoupling. I present an honest, poignant and humorous talk in which I tell stories about dealing with each other’s children and ex-spouses as well as coparenting conflicts. I teach the Four C’s: Keys to Successful Stepcoupling. These are: Connection, Communication, Coparenting and Clarification. I encourage stepcouples to build healthy relationships with their children and stepchildren. I offer tips, strategies and hope for stepcouples.