January is a big month for broken hearts. In fact, it's considered National Break Up Month by a number of experts and online forums.

man woman hands holding broken heart
Artsem Martysiuk, ThinkStock
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Men and women, tired of their marriages or other romantic relationships, typically like to get through the holiday season before making the courageous move of calling it quits. The holidays can serve as a distraction anyway, and relationship problems are put on the back burner.

The phone has been ringing like crazy since the new year at the Rose Relationship Learning Center in Ocean Township, where Stacey Rose, a psychotherapist, is used to the uptick in January appointments.

"Things calm down and they say, 'Oh yeah; I'm not happy,'" Rose said. "It's time to get back to me and what's going to make me happy in 2015."

Still, like the song states, breaking up is hard to do.

Rose said it takes a lot of courage to end a serious bond. Oftentimes by outsiders, a break-up is considered a cop-out, but it requires guts to walk away from what's familiar and walk towards what's not.

Rose said depending on the time, energy and emotion that's been invested into the relationship, some couples could benefit from working through the differences and searching for an outcome that keeps them together.

Research has also pointed to January as a popular month for online dating registrations.

According to Rose, New Jersey's frigid temperatures assist in the trend.

"You're home; it's cold," she said. "All they have to do is open up their computer and they're dating. It's that simple nowadays."

Rose noted people shouldn't be embarrassed by being part of a relationship gone sour. Love doesn't come with directions, and while people are put through multiple lessons and tests to score a driver's license, anyone can get a marriage license.

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