“Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again”: The Lived Experience of Reconciliation After Filing for Divorce

Despite deciding to divorce at some point in their lives and taking legal action, many couples change course and decide to reconcile. This experience, one of the most difficult and stressful challenges faced by the couple and family, has received less attention in the research literature. The objective of this research study was to investigate the perception and experience of reconciliation after filing a divorce petition using the descriptive phenomenological psychological method. An in-depth semi-structured interview was conducted with ten participants and the data was analyzed using Giorgi et al. method. Seven constituents were found showing that the participants considered the decision to reconcile after filing for divorce as: (a) self-sacrificing; (b) foresightful and optimal; (c) self-repressive; (d) temporary and deferred; (e) transformative and restructuring; (f) social; and (g) emotional. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed.