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Stephen Hedger

Stephen Hedger

Crisis Marriage Coach | Harley Street London

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28 Behaviours that damage marriages

It’s critical to know quickly when you and your relationship are in a pattern that could be destructive to its future.

Many of these destructive patterns can be understood and overcome.

Below is a list of behaviours that should never be ignored.

1. The couple that never argues. Nine times out of ten this couples dynamic will have a low passion reflected in little to no sex life.

2. The couple that can’t stop arguing. This erodes their connection and stacks resentments that can create emotional detachments.

3. Relationship contains someone that always needs to be right or wants to win arguments.

4. The couple who don’t make their relationship/connection a priority.

5. If a person is holding back love/intimacy as either self-protection or as a punishment.

6. When a person becomes a problem spouse as means to self-protect to deflect from their deeper real issue.

7. If a person marries for security and not love.

8. If a person ignores their partners’ cry’s for help.

9. If a partner is not invested in their partners’ happiness.

10. The couple that assumes they think and experience the world the same as each other.

11. The couple who don’t understand how to create an attraction dynamic.

12. When critical needs are ignored or not understood.

13. They are constantly on different pages, so feel disconnected most of the time.

14. They sweep problems away without understanding and dealing with the problem first.

15. When two people talk, but neither is understood. Or worse they listen and think they understand but actually don’t.

16. When two people stop having sex and assume lack of sex is their problem?

17. When people assume losing passion for each other over time is normal.

18. Not understanding love what it means and how it works.

19. The couple that doesn’t realise what they need to be happy is different from their partner.

20. People will naturally gravitate without thought to meet critical needs outside their relationship if their needs are not met within it.

21. Not understanding what really drives your partner and connects them to themselves.

22. Knowledge of what really attracted the couple when they first met because they could stop doing it negatively affecting their connection.

23. The person who is looking for fairness is likely to be killing their attraction dynamic.

24. The person who pleases others at a cost to themselves.

25. The person who becomes someone they are not to protect their marriage.

26. Couples that don’t make their marriage a priority.

27. If you’re on the verge of an affair, please know the affair will complicate your life and will cause everyone massive pain and suffering, and you will not think it was worth it.

28. Sudden change in personality can stress the marriage and can have destructive drivers if not correctly understood.

Being in a relationship is a skills-based activity. No one is good at it naturally.

Even naturally intuitive people will rarely have their partners accurate perspective because gender differences are specific to that gender.

A common message I hear is we should have come to see you years before. Most also agree they should have come to see me the day they decided to commit to a life together.

I couldn’t agree more as so much is at stake.

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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.

Find out more >>> The Marriage Breakthrough Program
Stephen Hedger
Latest posts by Stephen Hedger (see all)
  • “After 39 years, we finally stopped the cycle we thought we’d never escape.” - November 4, 2025
  • Ask Stephen: “When Communication Stops: How to Lead When Your Partner Shuts Down” - November 1, 2025
  • Disconnected for over 20 years… - October 26, 2025

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Recent Posts

  • “After 39 years, we finally stopped the cycle we thought we’d never escape.”
  • Ask Stephen: “When Communication Stops: How to Lead When Your Partner Shuts Down”
  • Disconnected for over 20 years…
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  • How can we tell if we are heading for divorce?
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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

“After 39 years, we finally stopped the cycle we thought we’d never escape.”

November 4, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

Stephen’s Marriage Breakthrough Program is designed to end conflict fast, rebuild safety, and live in the best part of our marriage without therapy or blame.” Question #1: What was the problem(s) that made you seek Stephens’ help? My wife and I had everything you could wish for in life after 39 years of marriage. Material […]

Disconnected for over 20 years…

October 26, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

What do you do when your marriage has been disconnected over 20 years, when you have tried many kinds of help without success. Do you give up or search for a new approach? What were the problem(s) that made you seek Stephens help?  My husband and I will have been married for 40 years next […]

Four Couples. Four Turning Points. One Common Truth.

October 10, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

Every couple who arrives at my door is different, but the story beneath the surface is often the same: two people lost in patterns they don’t understand, wondering if there’s a way back. Below are four short stories of couples who reached out to me they reached breaking point and through some simple changes found […]

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 […]

From Battlefield to Breakthrough: How to Save Your Marriage Without a Toxic Fight.

January 31, 2025 By Stephen Hedger

Most people who come to me for help believe their marriage is broken, so their level of hope is not high. Many will have tried to fix the problems without success. These people are unaware that there is a critical mindset shift: if you don’t make it, your chances of success dramatically drop. As you […]

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Recent Posts

  • “After 39 years, we finally stopped the cycle we thought we’d never escape.”
  • Ask Stephen: “When Communication Stops: How to Lead When Your Partner Shuts Down”
  • Disconnected for over 20 years…
  • *NEW* – Ask Stephen
  • How can we tell if we are heading for divorce?

*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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