Names and details are changed to protect privacy. When “Maya” and “Alex” walked into my office, they were tired. Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes—the kind that comes from years of missing each other by an inch. They had come ready to talk about divorce. Instead, they agreed to try a short series of couples mediation sessions—to see if a different kind of conversation could change the pattern. From the first minutes, the theme was clear: they spoke different “get-through” languages. Maya...