Robert Cooper

About

Here is the honest admission: suggesting this to someone you are close to is difficult, and a great many people rehearse it for months. There is a fear that raising it at all will be taken as a verdict on the whole thing. It is not a verdict. Partners who come here are usually doing the opposite of giving up, and I say that to nearly everyone in the first hour because almost nobody believes it about themselves. Asking for help with something is generally evidence of investment rather than of doubt. Caregiving was the background of my childhood and learned early that the people who ask for help soonest tend to do best, while the ones who wait out of pride do worst. That has held true across my working life. If you have been rehearsing how to suggest it, that is a good sign rather than a bad one.