Chapter one
After the kids
The last car pulls out of the driveway, and the house gets quiet. For years the calendar was made of other people: school, practice, a bedroom door down the hall. Now the two of you are at the table, and the question you put off is on it.
Some couples find a new ease. Others notice how long it has been since they talked about anything but the children. Neither is a problem to solve in a hurry. In sessions, Louise starts with how things are now, and with what each of you hopes the next years hold.
Chapter two
After the career
Retirement, a layoff or a move to part-time puts two people in the same rooms all day. One of you has a plan for the weeks ahead; the other would like a say in it. Routines that worked for decades, such as who drives, who cooks, who has the quiet hours, stop working.
A marriage does not need to be in trouble for this to be hard. In sessions, Louise helps each of you say what you would like the days to feel like, and helps the other hear it.
In the room
What couples bring to us in these years
A house that feels different
The same rooms, with no one else in them.
Days with no shape
A calendar that used to be full and now is not.
Things not said
Questions you each put off for the sake of everyone else.
What comes next
How the two of you want to spend the years ahead.
Abide does not promise any outcome. Louise sets the pace with you, and what the two of you decide is yours.
Would you like to talk it over?
Write to us, or call. There is no need to know what you want to say.