Michael and Julia shared an incident with me that occurred during the week. When they were grocery shopping together, Julia put the garlic bread at...
Relationship Resources Blog
Each day my life is enriched by listening to and guiding couples as they bring their raw experiences to sessions and we try to make sense of difficult times. Through these blog posts, I hope to give readers a snapshot of our work including examples of the real issues that people bring, and how we can find meaning and a path out together. Their identities are protected, but each experience is real. Because relationships are complex, my role is to help couples share their experiences while providing a conceptual road map to understand their experiences, finding a way out of the woods of painful experiences. This blog shares stories and concepts; I hope it provides hope, insight and richness to each reader’s own journey.
Zinged
Donald recently retired and now has the time to renovate their kitchen. When he and his wife Amanda were discussing the project, she said, “The...
Reactivity
Mike is a passionate guy. He’s also emotional. When he reacts to something, he’s intense. His partner Laura is different. She is sensitive, thoughtful, and...
Uncanny Timing
I had a video conferencing session with Brittany and Alex—Brittany was at home, and Alex was on his way to pick up a new sports...
Solving Problems
A husband was talking about his work and said that his job was to solve problems. When I heard this, I thought what a good...
Game Night
Lee and Maura talked about an incident over the weekend in couples counseling, and the conversation totally shut down. I encouraged them to continue the...
In the Spirit of Communication
George and Aimee have been married for decades. Now that the kids were adults and George had recently retired, they were taking a closer look...
Perceptual Responses
Tara and Reed were not in a good place for quite some time. They lost the ability to resolve conflict and grew quite distant. Eventually,...
Risk
It’s interesting to look at relationships as having levels of risk. Relationships with low risk aren’t threatened by disbanding. Some couples come to couples counseling...
Growth
Individual counseling isn’t the only place to work on yourself. Couples counseling provides similar opportunities. What’s different is that you are working on issues your...
Locking In
When couples make progress in couples counseling, one or both partners may question the viability of the changes. The goal of couples counseling is to...
Best Behavior
I recently started seeing Greg and Cara in couples counseling and was talking with Cara’s individual therapist. The therapist reported that Cara was concerned about...