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Increased demand for marriage counselling as financial difficulties rise

Levels of stress and anxiety remained high among couples using ACCORD’s counselling service last year.

NEW FIGURES SHOW there was a significant increase in the number of couples seeking marriage counselling in the last three years, citing stress, communication trouble and financial difficulties as some of the main problems in relationships.

Catholic counselling service ACCORD said today that some 6,536 couples used the service in 2012 with the number of counselling hours rising from 43,627 in 2010 to 50,422 in 2012.

The figures show that 58 per cent of individuals presenting to ACCORD in 2012 rated financial difficulties as a problem, a two per cent increase on last year.

Levels of stress and anxiety reported by clients remained high at 82 per cent but have decreased steadily from 2010 when they reached 87 per cent.

Reports of communication troubles between couples have risen i the last three years with 78 per cent reporting criticism and insults and 82 per cent saying their spouse did not listen to them or ignored them.

Emotional abuse in marriages is on the riseat 59 per cent and levels of depression remained the same at 51 per cent.

Reports of physical violence in relationships have shown a decrease over the three year period ranging from 19 per cent in 2010 to 14 per cent in 2011 and to 13 per cent in 2012.

Concerns about separation have risen over the period with the number of clients reporting infidelity as a problem increasing about 2 per cent since 2010.

Read: Couples getting hitched later in life as marriage rates fall>

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19 Comments
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    Mute Stephen Mc Elligott
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    Feb 12th 2013, 2:11 PM

    Accord marriage counselling. dont make me laugh. they charged us 150 euros three years ago for a mandatory pre marriage course that lasted a day. I needed counselling after paying out that kind of cash.

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    Mute Gareth Walker-Ayers
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    Feb 12th 2013, 5:13 PM

    Stephen, how was it mandatory?

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    Mute Laura Purcell
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    Feb 12th 2013, 5:58 PM

    In order to get married in the catholic church, you must do this course

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    Mute rodrigo detriano
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    Feb 12th 2013, 1:07 PM

    That Bertie bloke’s got a lot to answer for.

    55
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    Mute Justin Devaney
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    Feb 12th 2013, 1:13 PM

    You shouldn’t have married him.

    77
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    Mute kevin connolly
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    Feb 12th 2013, 1:08 PM

    Marriage is something that you have to work at. Once both of you talk openly with each other a lot of silly issues can be resolved before they get out of control. Try your best to keep mother in laws away from negotiations as that can spell serious trouble.

    It would really help also if the gluttens in the Government stopped savaging peoples finances because the cost of living ain’t coming down e.g mortgages,shopping,electricity/gas…

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    Mute Bernard Cribbons
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    Feb 12th 2013, 1:19 PM

    A good half of marriages I know are financially agreeable. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t last long. People call that love here! Ha ha ha!

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    Mute Louise Ni Riain
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    Feb 12th 2013, 2:01 PM

    Never do it, locked to 1 person for the rest of UR life, no thank u

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    Mute Karolyn Cassidy
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    Feb 12th 2013, 8:21 PM

    Totally agree Louise, can’t understand why anyone would get married in this day and age.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Feb 13th 2013, 1:50 AM

    Tax

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    Mute Keith Wizzy
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    Feb 12th 2013, 3:22 PM

    I wonder if Accord will offer their services to the gays when equality in marriage happens.

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    Mute Gareth Walker-Ayers
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    Feb 12th 2013, 5:14 PM

    No, and if it’s marital stress caused by something like having had a pregnancy terminated, they’d probably just hang up the phone on you!

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    Mute Sean Ryan
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    Feb 12th 2013, 5:56 PM

    Will they have people qualified enough to deal with gays? Would the counsellors not need to be gay themselves so as to offer the best service.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Feb 12th 2013, 10:18 PM

    ‘The gays’, its like being back in the 90′s. Sean, how very logical of you.

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Feb 12th 2013, 10:19 PM

    ‘The gays’, its like being back in the 90′s.

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    Mute sean
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    Feb 12th 2013, 3:55 PM

    Money. The root of all evil ,
    Perhaps we need that asteroid to veer off course and smash into earth,
    The world really does need to hit there reset button , before the greed ends up forcing us to self destruct

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    Mute SuperFry
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    Feb 13th 2013, 1:53 AM

    Im afraid to tell you the reset button is made up. We’ll just have to make do . . . Awkward!!

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    Mute Eilish Deegan
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    Feb 12th 2013, 2:24 PM

    Read “the midnight companion ” http://www.dealing-with-separation.com it’s brilliant .

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    Mute Step Steppins
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    Aug 19th 2013, 11:23 PM

    I think that people want to save their relationships way above the need for financial problems. If it was that simple we would see sites like http://markkordubapsychologist.com/couples-counselling-brisbane/ becoming null and void. Relationship and marriage counselling has become such a useful tool for people because we don’t ever really get a set of instructions when we start a relationship :) Interesting article!

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