“Therapist/Marriage Counselor? What I want is the honey crisp of the therapy world.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Victoria Pickering

“Dear PoPville,

I searched your archives and only found one blog post about finding a marriage counselor but it was for pre-nuptial counseling. I have a need for marriage counseling at the other end of the marriage – trying to figure out if I want out or want to open it up, or what. Do you mind posting a question about a) should I be looking for a more general therapist, or a marriage counselor if (at least at first) I want to see them on my own?, and b) how do I find a therapist that is more open a la Dan Savage in terms of the multitude of potential options for us vs the binary of staying as is or divorce. The last thing I need is a marriage therapist who only has a very narrow view of models for marriage. There’re so many out there and so little on their philosophy or approach to therapy. It’s like taking a bite of a random apple not knowing it it’ll be sweet or tart or mealy or crunchy. What I want is the honey crisp of the therapy world. In DC or NoVA preferably.”