Making a decision to leave your marriage is probably the most painful and difficult time in one’s life. Question after question can consume your thoughts before you leave your marriage: Will I be ok? Will my children be ok? What will others think? Much of the time, each partner is … Read More
Emotional Pain: Obstacle or Opportunity?
A natural response to emotional pain for many people (myself included) is to resist or avoid it. This makes sense because emotional pain can feel overwhelming. Predictably, many view emotional pain as an obstacle. For some, exploring difficult painful emotions can feel like a trap. Often with physical pain, we … Read More
How to Express Understanding and Support in a Few Simple Statements
Are you looking for ways to build love and trust in your marriage or significant relationship? What do you say, and how do you listen to your loved one as they share their feelings? Expressing understanding is one of the most important ways to offer support. To help you become … Read More
Kids Leaving for College Can Feel Like Grief
I was always the Mom who couldn’t wait for summer and more time with my kids. I loved long days of kids running through sprinklers, endless crafts, and baseball games. Melancholy would set in around the purchase of school supplies, realizing our unlimited time budget was about to be drastically … Read More
Parenting Teens with Love and Logic
It is not uncommon for well-intending parents to go into problem-solving mode and take control when their teen approaches them for help. When a teen has found themselves in a troubled situation, one of the biggest mistakes a parent can make is to own their problems and take responsibility for … Read More
The Complicated Process of Mourning Your Divorce
Mourning the death of a spouse can be incredibly difficult. The loss of a partner, friend, companion, and confidant is so universal that expressions of mourning are expected, and responses of sympathy are instinctive. Neither the surviving spouse, nor the people around them question the need to mourn, nor the … Read More
Are You Anxious or Frustrated?
“A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” — Charles Kettering “If I were given one hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute solving it.” — Albert Einstein The same thing is true with our emotions. The more clearly we can define … Read More
What’s So Relatable About Batman?
If for some reason you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of superhero movies being made these days. Before superhero movies became so popular, the most iconic and successful superhero movies were the Batman films. Also, Batman is my favorite character and I have seen the movies more times that … Read More
The Crisis of Desire
Many couples I see frequently face the dilemma of how to sustain a fulfilling sex life over the course of their long-term relationship. In her TED Talk, Esther Perel talks about the crisis of desire in modern love in such an insightful way. She carefully differentiates the difference between love … Read More
The Price of Silence and Self-Betrayal
In this three-part series, we are going to explore a few communication errors commonly made by couples. Those include the price of silence and self-betrayal in relationship, the price of anger in relationship, and how to have an authentic voice in relationships. In this first blog, we will discuss the … Read More