Kelsea Ballerini Reveals She and Husband Morgan Evans 'Go to Couples Therapy All the Time'

Kelsea Ballerini is getting real about her marriage.

In her new poetry book Feel Your Way Through, the country singer writes about how her parents' divorce when she was young affected her future relationships and views on marriage.

"I swore I was never going to get married," Ballerini, 28, tells PEOPLE, adding that her parents had a "super-messy and really drawn-out" split. "For so long, I just viewed their marriage as their divorce. As I got older, I was able to have conversations with them both about their marriage, pre-divorce and realized that there was beauty there, there was love there at some point. That helped me realize that I could find that."

The "Half of My Hometown" singer did, of course, find love with fellow country singer-songwriter Morgan Evans, and they tied the knot in 2017.

For more on Kelsea Ballerini, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

"Because of my parents' divorce and the way that they loved me through it in their own ways, I have a different idea of marriage, but I would think I have a healthier idea of marriage," Ballerini says. "I don't see it as a fairytale-esque, ride-off-into-the-sunset kind of thing. It's work, but it's worth it."

Indeed, Ballerini says she and Evans, 36, are constantly working on their marriage.

"We go to couples therapy all the time," she adds. "We have really good couples friends that we vacation with, but we also can sit down with and have the hard conversations."

The CMA award winner found a beautiful partnership with Evans.

"We approach our relationship so differently, but he shows up — he shows up in every way he needs to," Ballerini says.

Because the coronavirus pandemic deterred their touring schedules, Ballerini and Evans were able to enjoy plenty of quality time together the past 20 months.

"I'm really grateful for the last year and a half, honestly, to be able to have time that we'd never had before to not just see each other once a week, but see each other every day and cook together and buy a house together and walk the dog together and just do really normal things that seem small," Ballerini says. "That was a really beautiful thing for our marriage."