We want to shine more light on a pretty invisible part of what causes marriages great stress: external stressors.
Sometimes both individuals have them but more often one person is being hit hard. These external stressors could be an aging parent, a really high stress job, a difficult in-law.
It’s not enough, in our view, to just stay intrapsychic or act as if these external stressors are equally shared between the couple. We should be more nuanced in our couples therapy approach in these scenarios.