Originally Posted by Chris H.

Welcome to Talk About Marriage.

Talk About Marriage is a forum to discuss marriage and relationships. Here, we interpret the word "marriage" loosely, recognizing that many different people from different cultures view marriage differently.

I started Talk About Marriage because I know that there are a ton of people out there looking for help and support in their relationships. Talk About Marriage provides a unique opportunity for people to anonymously post and provide feedback to others about their relationships. There is no cost for using this website; it is entirely supported by advertising and it's parent site, The Family & Marriage Counseling Directory.

The Family & Marriage Counseling Directory has been one of the top sites in the search engines for "Marriage Counseling" and "Family Counseling" since 2003. Because of this, I am aware of the masses of people that are searching for help on the internet. Based on some rough statistics, I can estimate that about a half million visitors came to the site this past year.

Talk About Marriage is designed to be a community forum for those interested in talking to others about their relationships, but perhaps not ready to take the extra step to get professional help. Be aware that there are professionals available for relationship help all around the world, and The Family & Marriage Counseling Directory is just a small sample of therapists who have chosen to advertise.

The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy has a service called Therapist Locator, which lists trained marriage and family therapists in the US, Canada, and Overseas.

The American Psychological Association also has a referral service called the APA Help Center.

In addition, the Open Directory Project has a category full of other mental health counseling directories. And there are advertisers on this site who provide professional services as well.

As you can see, I am partial to professional help. One reason being, that I have a post-graduate degree in Social Work, and I believe it to be a worthy field with impeccable values. The other reason I am partial to professional help, is that I've done my own work in different forms of therapy for many years, and I've found it to be an incredible life-enriching process that has helped me to become a good husband and father. Therapy has a way of helping me see things I wouldn't normally see, and learn things about myself that I might never have learned.

Of course, I've heard all of the horror stories about therapists out there who "did this" or "said that!" I'm very fortunate that the one's I've spent time with have been well-trained and ethical. People should be aware that every state has licensing bodies who are there to deal with unethical behavior, and it is our duty to report unethical conduct.

That brings me back to this forum . Please read our posting guidelines. This forum is open to the general public, and there is no guarantee about what anyone here might say. Please be respectful of others, regardless of how different your views are.

Thank you for visiting my site.


Chris Hartwell