Trust Issues Can Cause Divorce – But Don’t Prevent Mediation
Trust, or to be more specific, lack of trust, is one of the main reasons why relationships fail. Regarding marriages, lack of trust or mistrust often results from infidelity or other similar event that occurred between the spouses. Spouses often ask me: “my spouse and I want to get divorced, but we just don’t trust each other. How can we do mediation?”In thinking about that valid and important question, I recall the famous quote from President Reagan. When asked to describe his philosophy regarding the potential nuclear arms deal he was proposing with the Soviet Union, he stated: “Trust but Verify.” In divorce mediation, while it would be ideal if both spouses implicitly trusted one another, in real-life, that is often not the case. Couples seeking divorce exhibit an elevated and wide-range of feelings and emotions, and feeling a lack of trust in a spouse with whom you are planning to divorce is very common. This article will explore the impact of trust on divorce mediation.