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Stephen Hedger

Stephen Hedger

Crisis Marriage Coach | Harley Street London

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“10 reasons why couples don’t make it”

There are now well over 800 pages in this website helping any reader to become curious about their relationship why they work and why they fail. People from all over the world are now attending meetings with me to gain solutions to seemingly impossible marital problems.

In today’s post, I’m going to be sharing some key thinking that helps couples to keep their relationship alive with some thoughts on the cost of not applying these to a marriage.

1. Never assume your partner is trying to hurt you

2. Never make your partner wrong

3. Never threaten the end of the relationship (unless you really mean it!)

4. Never pull your love away

5. Never make your relationship all about YOU!

6. Always make your partner feel No1 in your life

7. Always make your partners needs your needs too

8. Always look for ways to help your partner feel great about themselves

9. Always make unconditional love your priority (it will cost you if you don’t)

10. Always make time for your relationship every day

Let’s look at these thoughts in more detail…

1. Never assume your partner is trying to hurt you – My clients are helped to really understand why their partner is behaving in a particular way so they are empowered to understand and support them rather than judge and protect themselves from their partners actions.

Note: Relationships die when I have to stop loving you and start protecting me from you.

2. Never make your partner wrong. – If you make your partner wrong you are telling your partner you are qualified to be their judge. All this will create is resistance and resentment.

3. Never threaten the end of the relationship –  When someone threatens the end of the relationship it makes the possibility real in both peoples minds and they will naturally move to protect themselves and make new plans.

4. Never pull your love away – If you pull your love away it won’t have a positive effect on either person and it won’t protect you. People that pull their love away end up feeling unhappy and exhausted and disconnected from their true selves.

5. Never make your relationship about you – People that take from relationships and don’t give to their partner in a meaningful way unusually don’t end up with very much. So it’s critical to make your partner and your relationship the centre of your world.

6. Always make your partner feel No1 in your life – Across the board, if anything becomes a bigger priority over an intimate partner in their mind this will cause a significant issue. This can be from work to hobbies from the girl in the office to the mother in law. It’s critical to help your partner feel in their mind they are No1 to you.

7. Always make your partner needs your needs too. – One of the biggest causes of marital break down is needs not being met. This means understanding your partner needs and making them important to you is critical to learn for them to feel happy when they are with you. Needs not being met can create resentments and a gravity towards getting their needs met elsewhere.

8. Always look for ways to help your partner feel great about themselves. – Basic attachment in couples is simply based on how we feel about ourselves when we are with our partner. If we feel good we want to spend more time with them. If we feel bad about ourselves when we are with our partner we don’t. This means we must learn how our partner experience the world so we can be a support rather than an irritant.

9. Always make unconditional love your priority. – Most couples reserve this for children and see unconditional love as risky with someone that can hurt them. So they hold back their love and the relationship suffers as the couple mirror each other and watch the marriage die a little every day.

10. Always make time for your relationship every day – Your relationship needs feeding every day. So many couples are missing the really small things they can do every day that not only keep the love alive but keep the passion alive too.

When relationships are explored correctly what couples will find is they are really learning common sense thinking, but sadly common sense isn’t really that common which is why so many people get into trouble with thinking that simply makes a bad situation worse.

I see so many people that could have divorced so easily but with new thinking and a fresh approach, this understanding helped them to see that divorce wasn’t the right solution for them.

They pressed the reset button and rebuilt their relationship to bring the best out of each other for the first time.

 

 

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Stephen Hedger
Stephen Hedger
About the author:

Harley Street Expert | Founder & High Performance Coach

With two decades of experience helping couples out of crisis, Stephen the founder of The Marriage Breakthrough Program, uses his proven system for rescuing and rebuilding relationships on the edge of divorce. A trusted advisor to CEOs, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders globally, his work blends emotional intelligence with strategic clarity. Known for navigating highly complex relationship challenges, Stephen helps individuals and couples find clarity and direction when everything is at stake.

Click to find out more >>> The Marriage Breakthrough Program
Stephen Hedger
Latest posts by Stephen Hedger (see all)
  • How can we tell if we are heading for divorce? - October 19, 2025
  • Why does a woman that loves her husband have multiple affairs? - July 15, 2025
  • Loss of Love? How to Save Your Relationship - June 26, 2025

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Recent Case Studies

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How one couple stopped constant bickering when they discovered the expectations hiding underneath it Names and identifying details have been changed. By the time Mark and Rachel came to see me, they were exhausted with each other. They weren’t having enormous arguments about affairs, money or whether to stay married. They were arguing about the […]

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Can one person begin changing a marriage when their partner is no longer convinced it can be saved? This clients story shows what happened when one woman stopped trying to persuade her husband and began changing the part of the relationship she could influence. Quick Summary ClientsA professional couple, married for approximately seven years. ChallengeHer […]

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When James finally made his marriage a priority, Emma had already learned not to rely on him. When James began coming home earlier, he expected Emma to be pleased. Years before, she had repeatedly asked him to spend less time at work. Now he was protecting his evenings, turning down calls and making more time […]

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I’m not going to ask you how you “feel", pay me to watch you argue, or try to find the person to blame.

I am looking to discover if the couple can become a team, overcome their problems together and create a dynamic that will create a loving and passionate life together.

My approach is to take you from where you are, to where you want to be… fast!

I can not recommend Stephen highly enough – he not only saved our marriage, but has improved my marriage and myself as a person.

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Hi, I'm Stephen Hedger. I'm determined to help couples discover what their marriage is capable of with the right information. My only question is, will it be yours?

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A 30 minute call with Stephen

In a short phone conversation, Stephen was able to quickly get to the heart of what the real issue was in our marriage – and why in almost a year of working on our marriage including 10 weeks of marriage counselling through a relationship therapy organisation, we weren’t really making any progress. I found Stephen to be extremely perceptive, as well as empathetic to our situation, while being able to quickly pinpoint the real sticking point in our marriage.
Many thanks
Olivia

Dear Stephen
Thank you for your time to listen to my experience in my marriage. You gave me encouragement to speak out to my partner in confidence. You made me realise that sometimes the way we make comments on each other can aggravate the situation and make it worse. Your advice made me feel revived.

Kind regards

Chipo

Success Stories

Why does a woman that loves her husband have multiple affairs?

July 15, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

This gentleman had just found out his wife was guilty of another infidelity and was now at the end of the road. He had tried to forgive her before, but this time in terrible pain, he couldn’t see a way forward and was now planning his divorce. His wife came to me looking for a […]

Please Save Our Marriage! – Testimonial

March 1, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

Please Save Our Marriage! This was the first email I recieved from Darren and Sue, they were at breaking point. When they first entered my clinic you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. This was a couple with young children on the edge, breaking up seemed like the only option open to them… Sue […]

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January 31, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

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September 16, 2024 By Stephen Hedger

We were in the process of physical separation, with my husband arranging to move out at the end of the month, and I was getting legal advice on proceeding with the divorce.  On one of those distressed and sleepless nights, I came across Stephen’s website and his blog. I was fascinated. What Stephen has written […]

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April 22, 2024 By Stephen Hedger

So what do you do when the trust is broken so badly that their relationship ends with them selling their family home and moving into separate homes? Most people would consider this the end, but this gentleman decided something different. He wrote to me to see if I could help. I wanted to encourage his […]

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Harley Street
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Recent Clients: Scotland, Ireland, Texas, New York, Dubai, Los Angeles, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Ireland, UK, Monaco to name a few.

Stephen Hedger offers married couples in crisis across the globe a comprehensive strategic roadmap to overcome their marriage problems.

Today Stephen works with Celebrities, CEO’s, Lawyers, Bankers, Royalty, Judges, and business owners helping them transform their family and personal relationships with massive breakthroughs, seemingly against all odds.

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Recent Posts

  • Are You Making Things Better or Worse in Your Marriage?”
  • Before You Decide Whether to Save Your Marriage or Leave It, Read This
  • A Marriage Dies From Thousands of Cuts
  • We Can’t Solve Anything Without Making It Worse
  • “I Had Never Felt So Right… And Then So Ashamed.”

*Disclaimer:
Any testimonials stated on this page or on any pages on the Stephen Hedger Marriage Coach website/s are proof of our success, naturally, results may vary from person to person.

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