How to Negotiate Where to Spend the Holidays as a Newly Married Couple

holiday

Wondering where to spend the holidays as a newly married couple? As the song goes, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go.” The question this year is, “To which Grandmother’s house to go?” One discussion I encourage pre-marriage and newly married couples to have, especially this … Read More

The Lions’ Den: A Survivalist Guide To Holidays

survivalist

Why do you need to be a survivalist during the holidays? We love to be with our family, but we hate the conflict. We can’t stay away and have to brace ourselves before walking into holiday family gatherings. It can feel like entering a lions’ den. Walking through the lions’ … Read More

Contempt – Relationship Poison

Dr. John Gottman has researched couples for over 40 years. One of the things that he is known for is being able to predict which couples would make it and which would fail with a 94% accuracy rate. Predicting individual behaviors and outcomes is tricky business with a very low … Read More

Conflict Tools You Can Use

conflict

While perusing Pinterest and looking for posts regarding conflict, I came across the following quote: 10% of conflict is due to difference of opinion and 90% is due to tone of voice and delivery. I was curious about the origin. While I was not able to find consensus as to … Read More

How to “Parent Proof” Your Marriage

marriage

One of the most frequent issues that many spouses face is problems with intrusive parents. Do you experience parents who call daily, come over uninvited, tell you how to parent your children, judge the decisions you make or disrespect your spouse? These type of encounters are problematic to marriages because they violate … Read More

Divorce 911: Identify the Problems to Find the Solutions

divorce

Recently, GROW Counseling and Dr. Wendy Dickinson partnered with Divorce 911 to create a few short videos addressing common themes in divorce. In this video, they discuss how to deal with problems that are under your control or outside of your control.

Divorce 911: Normalize Your Emotions

fight

Recently, GROW Counseling and Dr. Wendy Dickinson partnered with Divorce 911 to create a few short videos addressing common themes in divorce. In this video, they discuss the topic of “normalizing” your emotions.

What exactly is adolescence?

teenagers

For many parents, understanding a bit about their teenager’s brain development can be helpful in navigating the sometimes difficult adolescent years. But first, what exactly are the adolescent years? What does the term “adolescence” even mean? Researchers and scientists have had a pretty difficult time coming to a consensus definition. … Read More

Facebook: Avoid Damaging the Intimacy in your Relationship

facebook

Since the birth of Facebook over a decade ago, it has grown from circulating among a few universities and businesses and is now incorporated as a part of most Americans everyday life. According to The Statistics Portal, Facebook is the number one leader in social media, now reaching 1.59 billion active … Read More