Speaking the Same Language: When the Foundation Cracks

by Steven Marshall

The truth is out. Maybe you found it on a phone you wish you'd never picked up. Maybe it was
confessed across your own kitchen table. Either way, the two of you are standing in a house that
suddenly doesn't feel like yours — because an affair doesn't damage one room of a marriage. It
cracks the foundation under all of them.

You don't need anybody to tell you it hurts. You need to know whether it can be rebuilt — and
how two people who can't seem to say one sentence without wounding each other are supposed
to do the rebuilding.

In Speaking the Same When the Foundation Cracks, counselor and pastor Steven
Marshall brings his CVSS model onto the hardest ground a marriage can stand on. With the
ground rules of No JABSS, the posture of H.U.M. — Heard, Understood, Matters — and the four
skills of CVSS, he shows couples in both chairs how the truth once and tell it whole — no ambush, no trickle-truth, no second discovery daysHold grief and accountability at the same table, without either one devouring the otherRebuild trust on safety that can be verified — a ledger of kept days, not promises taken on faithWrite a new marriage contract for a new marriage — because the old one is not coming back, and what replaces it can be truerWalk the long road of triggers, anniversaries, and a forgiveness that is never rushed and never owed on a scheduleAnd if the foundation won't hold, this book tells that truth too — honestly, and without shaming
the spouse who did everything right.

Reconciliation is not automatic, and it is never promised. But it is possible — on ground that has
been inspected honestly, in a language both of you can speak.
Steven Marshall, LPC-S, is a licensed professional counselor-supervisor, pastor, and author of
the Speaking the Same Language series. Through S&A Counseling, he helps individuals, couples,
and families communicate honestly, heal deeply, and live full. Learn more at
www.sa-counseling.com.

125 pages, Paperback

Published October 16, 2026

About the author

Steven Marshall is the Senior Editor and Content Moderator of SNM Horror Magazine. He has 7 published novels and 5 anthologies. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1970, he hails from St. Petersburg, Florida by way of Stamford, CT. with his wife, Samantha, originally from the UK, and their 5 baby black panthers. He is a writer, editor and publisher of new, up-and-coming horror and dark fiction writers. He owns a multiple award winning press that’s been around since 2008.

New Blood Magazine stated: “If Stephen King is the emperor of horror, then Marshall is the Law. He combines a unique Poesque to Lovecraftian element in his writing that you don’t often see these days; a true wordsmith.” You can find his short stories in print, on his website, in his novels, and on his online horror magazine. He also writes original music lyrics and plays bass.