Occasionally a couple will come to couples counseling announcing they are incompatible. I find this rare. Couples will have differences. In fact, fifty percent of couples are based on similarities and fifty percent of couples are based on differences, and neither relationship is more successful than the other. Couples who are different typically have complementary relationships, in which their dissimilarities enhance one another.

If relationships are incompatible, they are unlikely to make it to a second date, never mind through a courtship. The issue for these couples is not their differences, but their ability to work through their differences. Couples counseling can help with this process.