Couples counseling is about both saving and optimally ending relationships. Some of the factors affecting the counselor's role in couples therapy are addressed in this paper. It opens with a listing of the objectives of counseling, such as the need to remain neutral. Some of the societal influences on divorce rate are discussed, along with suggestions for helping clients reframe their conception of divorce. Such reframing may include looking at how divorce runs in families, whether it is selfish to question relationships in midlife, the reality of single-parent and second families, ex-spouses, and blended families. Four process steps to improved divorce management are offered. The acceptance of divorce, it is claimed, does not mean people have lost faith in love or long-term relationships. It looks at reasons why women are less likely to remarry following divorce, shifting attitudes toward divorce, the trend to defer divorce, hostile environments that produce cautiousness. Also covered are issues of legislating long-term relationships, those situations in which couples "stay together for the kids," and some of the advantages of serial monogamy. A list of divorce-related facts is included. (RJM)