Finally, much needed relationship help for geographically challenged couples!  THE COMMUTER MARRIAGE:  Keep Your Relationship Close While You’re Far Apart (Adams Media; May13, 2008; Trade Paperback Original) by respected Ph.D., Tina Tessina speaks directly to the more than 4 million U.S. couples juggling the unique struggles only long-distance marriages face.

Excerpt
Your marriage vows may have said, “'til death do us part” but no one said anything about what happens when career, circumstances, or a child or family member with a problem makes it necessary for you to part, and you want to maintain the closeness in your relationship. Being married at a distance is not as unusual as you may think. More and more couples are being separated by work, money and family considerations. In fact, most long-term relationships encounter a period of living separately for one reason or another. As a counselor, I’ve seen more and more couples who must deal with the special circumstances of commuter marriage. As our society becomes more mobile, jobs become scarce, and both spouses routinely have careers, commuter marriages have increased.

If you and your spouse are either in or contemplating a situation where you are:

*Temporarily living apart due to job or other reasons

*Living at a distance you hadn’t planned on

*Working such different hours it feels as though you are living apart

*Away from home for days or weeks at time due to job or other necessity

*Trying to decide if a new job or opportunity is worth the separation you’ll have to endure

*Dealing with the difference between your image of commuter marriage and the reality

You can find the help you need in these pages.

Living separately really wasn’t what you had in mind when you got married: instead, you probably dreamed of quiet evenings sitting cozily on the couch, fun-filled weekends, bicycling, hiking or trekking the swap meet together, joint expeditions to the grocery store or the home improvement warehouse, working together on renovating the bathroom, or even just hanging out with friends or family. To your surprise, that’s not what you’ve got. Instead, you’re spending most of your time apart, due to shift changes, job relocations or too much work travel. Chances are it’s so far from your dream that you don’t really know how to handle it. You may be squabbling about being stuck with all the household chores while your partner pines away in a distant location; or you’re the one who’s all by yourself every night away from home, and you both may be feeling all the intimacy and partnership gradually draining out of your relationship, leaving you with an empty shell where your marriage used to be.

In these pages, you’ll find case histories of couples who face the same issues that exist in your marriage -- being separated and struggling to maintain your partnership mutuality and equality.

For each problem you face, you’ll find specific solutions as well as the examples of how other couples use the exercises and guidelines to solve the problems created by their long-distance situations.

You’ll also find step-by-step guidelines, how-tos, and exercises to teach you the skills you need to manage your unique and challenging situation, and to maximize the advantages of your situation, as well as case histories that illustrate both the problems and the solutions.