|
Analyst keeps couples together
By Tian Xiuzhen (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-14 02:00
More couples with marriage problems are turning to Shu Xin, the nation's
first marriage analyst, to find a solution to their difficulties.
Shu who used to be a columnist on human relationships has set up the Love
Maintenance Consulting Company, perceiving a great business potential among
Shanghai's married population.
The company, with six lawyers and 12 consultants, assesses the quality of the
marriage, spots out the problems and offers the most appropriate advice,
charging the clients 200-300 yuan (US$24-US$36) per hour, which is fairly high
according to current salary levels in China.
A sign of Shu's success is that 80 per cent of the couples who visited his
company decided to stay together. Guided by the advice of Shu and his
colleagues, they have continued their marriages, adopting a more positive and
active attitude towards their partner.
As China's first professional marriage analyst, Shu is self-taught, working
while learning, and very happy to invent the term of "marriage analyst" which
has been widely recognized.
He used to follow a method developed by the Family Saver, a famous marriage
consulting and assisting company in the United States, which involved giving out
a questionnaire to clients.
On the form there were some 50 questions covering different aspects of family
life, with particular details of sexual behaviour. The answers from clients
would clearly reveal the real state of the marriage.
"However, this questionnaire proved to be not so practical in Shanghai, as
Chinese are rather conservative about sex or talking about sex and many clients
are not so objective in answering those questions," Shu said.
He later developed three categories of marriages -- sexless marriages,
loveless marriages and marriages which, if they continue, would only harm the
two partners and their children.
Couples falling into the first category will often be suggested to put off
their divorce and most of them will usually improve their marriages based on
specific advice Shu has given them.
"Marriage is like a business which goes through ups and downs and there will
always be losers and winners. The couple are demanded to spare no efforts to
operating the business well and seek a win-win result," Shu said.
Following Shu, several more such companies have been established in Shanghai
and in places outside Shanghai such as Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong
Province.
To improve the overall status of Chinese marriages, the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences is drafting a training outline to help engaged couples prepare
for marriage.
"There is no such a term as marriage analyst even in the United States," said
Xu Anqi, an expert on marriage and family at the Shanghai Academy of Social
Sciences. "Whatever the term, such a profession is really badly needed by
Chinese couples."
Xu pointed out that staff engaged in marriage consultancy or marriage therapy
all have to receive a standard education and work as interns for at least 1,000
hours. However in China, the subject of marriage science has yet to become a
university course.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top China
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
