Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell are The Bachelor‘s latest success story. They’re happy, in love, and looking forward to spending their lives together.
But that doesn’t mean navigating their fairly new relationship has been all rainbows and butterflies. Bushnell and Higgins are only human — and even admitted recently that they attend couples counseling to help them keep them strong.
“We want to get a foundation that is healthy and pure and honest, with some help from a mediator,” Higgins recently told People magazine of the counseling sessions the two attend at their church. “Bachelor or not, our life is not easy to navigate. We have our struggles. But we won’t give up. And for every argument, we’re stronger for it.”
More: Ben Higgins has a lot to say about his wedding plans — or lack thereof
As most of us know, being in a committed relationship is not always easy, and Bushnell and Higgins have the added stress of how they met on top of everyday pressures.
“There are so many weird elements to being in a relationship after The Bachelor,” said Bushnell. “We’ve gotten in arguments like any other couple, but about some things that other couples wouldn’t have to fight about, like the fact that we met when he was dating other women. You can say that’s what I signed up for, but it’s still real life and it’s still hard.”
Yes, being that they aren’t even married yet, it might seem a little early for Bushnell and Higgins to be attending therapy together, but seeking the aid of outside counsel is fairly common practice in this day and age — and it actually seems like a very mature decision on their part.
Consider celebrity couple Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell’s approach to therapy, and Bushnell and Higgins’ couples counseling seems pretty dang brilliant.
“You do better in the gym with a trainer; you don’t figure out how to cook without reading a recipe,” Bell said in a 2015 interview. “Therapy is not something to be embarrassed about.”
“I noticed an actor and her husband on [a recent cover of a celebrity tabloid] that said ‘In Couples Therapy!'” Shepard said, backing up his wife in the same conversation. “The clear message is, ‘Oh, their marriage is ending.’ There’s such a negative connotation. In my previous relationship, we went to couples therapy at the end, and that’s often too late. You can’t go after nine years and start figuring out what patterns you’re in.”
We applaud Higgins and Bushnell for taking a mature, realistic approach to their impending nuptials. After all, isn’t it better to open up lines of communication before major problems hit and the irreparable damage is already done?
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And Bushnell emphasizes that just because she and Higgins are talking to someone, it doesn’t mean calling it quits is an option.
More: Lauren Bushnell has a trick to keep the romance alive with Ben Higgins
“Even facing situations I didn’t know if I could handle, running away was never an option for me,” she told People. “I am so committed to Ben. I love him so much and at the end of the day, I want to spend my life with him.”
What do you think? Is Bushnell and Higgins’ choice to attend therapy a good decision or a bad sign for the relationship?
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