Purchase Paperback Edition Direct from the Author

If you live in Australia, you can purchase Marriage is for Grown-ups (paperback edition only) at a discounted price direct from the author. To order your copy, email noel@noelgiblett.com.au or call him on 0431 848 835.

If you live outside Australia, you are advised to purchase the paperback edition from Amazon.

NOTE: The eBook edition is available only from Amazon, regardless of your location.

About this Book

• Want to save (or strengthen) your relationship?
• Want your marriage (or de-facto marriage) to last?
• Want to learn how to stop panicking when the shit hits the fan?
• Want to learn how to work through common couple difficulties?
• Want to grow old together, happily?

In the tradition of Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten and Gordon Livingston’s Too Soon Old Too Late Smart, Noel Giblett’s Marriage is for Grown-ups proposes that marriage (and de-facto marriage) are an invitation to grow up—which we don’t necessarily like—and that our relationships offer us the vehicle for that growth, if we’re willing to take the journey.

Fundamental questions are embraced throughout the book:

• What is marriage, or de-facto marriage, and what does it take?
• Why does it often go ‘off-the-boil’ or worse?
• How should we understand these changes and difficulties?
• What can we do about them?

Thirty short sharp chapters take the reader through five key tasks, in five sections:

1. ‘Cleaning the Lens’ examines our assumptions, expectations and frameworks regarding relationships and offers some surprising principles that can make a difference;
2. ‘Mapping the Territory’ takes those principles and applies them to the journey of the committed intimate relationship;
3. ‘Moving Forward’ tackles the common nitty-gritty issues that couples struggle with and offers some guidance about how to grow with them;
4. ‘Showing up Differently’ offers some tips on to how to make a difference in your relationship so that your relationship can be different; and
5. ‘Staying Grounded’ explores how to keep your feet on the ground while your relationship is working on you.

The book concludes with an Appendix entitled Essential Survival Skills for the Emotionally Intelligent Marriage which walks the reader through The Three Point Checklist for Everyday Life and The Five Step Process for Difficult Times or Delicate Conversations.

By honouring the inherent difficulties and challenges of marriage and de-facto marriage, and giving the reader a clear map of the terrain and the necessary equipment for the journey, Marriage is for Grown-ups resources the reader for the time honoured goal of a long term or lifelong relationship which many still aspire to and regard as the gold standard.

Weaving insights from psychotherapy, brain-sex research, relationship theory and the wisdom traditions, Marriage is for Grown-ups has been described by one reader as, ‘like a personal letter from a wise therapist to a much loved client…’

Drawing on 40 years of marriage and 30 years as a relationship counsellor, Noel combines professional and personal insights, bringing humanity, warmth and wisdom to this important and often delicate subject.