Under what circumstances can someone receive alimony? How?

You might be entitled to short term alimony so you can get a job to take care of yourself. If you already have a job, you might be entitled to short term alimony to equalize your income with your spouses income. If your income is more than your spouses, your spouse might be entitled to short term alimony for the same reasons.

Entitlement to alimony is extremely fact driven in circumstances such as yours and will almost always be a determination of the judge because it is doubtful that you're about to be ex-spouse will agree to it. Seven years is a relatively short marriage for alimony, however there are exceptions depending on exactly what happened. If it is determined that you have been undertaking counseling and need to continue it is possible that that may be ordered paid for by your about to be ex-spouse. Assuming that you are considering divorce I would suggest that you engage and counsel with an attorney prior to taking any revocable action.