Here's a few tidbits from current research: Gottman offers it's two weeks between feeling chest pains and seeing a cardiologist, but it's six years between realizing your marriage has problems and seeking counseling Jacobsen found that while 55% of couples improved after marital therapy, only 35% of couples were in the non-distressed range (put another way, 45% of couples don't get better, 20% get a little better, and only 35% are happy after therapy) Jacobsen found that often people in marital therapy only look better at the end of the study because the controls got so much worse Jacobsen reviewed relapse studies and determined that 30-50% of improved couples relapse in two years (put another way, about 17% of couples are truly happy two years after couples therapy)