How To Avoid Stress When Your Spouse Nags At You For Being Unresponsive

By |2016-12-29T19:56:25+00:00August 14th, 2013|Anxiety therapy, Communication Problems, Intimacy, relationship issues, stress|

Are you bothered when your partner blames you for being unresponsive to something they said or did, yet shuts you down the minute you try to share your feelings? You must be intensely frustrated caught in this catch twenty-two trap. That’s exactly how thirty-two year sales director Ian felt when his twenty-nine year old partner Chantal, an office manager, poked and prodded him about whether he enjoyed the elaborate celebration dinner she had thrown for him when he got his recent job promotion. He had been surprised and touched and thanked her during the party. But she kept on fishing for more, wanting to know every detail of his experience after all the guests had gone and well into the next week. She would bring it up out of nowhere irrespective of what they were doing or talking about. If he didn’t jump up and down with joy and praise her for her thoughtfulness she accused him of not liking the party and just pretending to enjoy himself. If he reassured her that it made him happy she countered with the suggestion that he was just saying it to be polite.

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How to relieve stress in a marriage by sharing jobs

By |2016-12-29T19:50:11+00:00May 13th, 2013|Anxiety therapy, Communication Problems, Intimacy, relationship issues, stress|

How many times have you ended a stressful day by trying to help your partner with chores only to find that they don’t even notice, and that if they do, they ignore it? Doesn’t it stress you out even more? Don’t you find that you start to get angry, and that your good intentions became a bitter taste in the mouth? That’s exactly what happened to twenty-nine year old Physical Therapy Assistant Mara when she came home from a stressful day fighting traffic as she went from one snappy uncooperative patient’s home to another. Yet she found herself wanting to prove that she was a good wife, so she did all the dishes that had piled up since breakfast that morning, and ironed a fresh shirt for thirty-three year old media executive Dominic to wear the following day. She usually enjoyed doing little things for her partner. It made her feel more committed and closer to him. But not today.

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Is Co-Dependency the Currency of Your Family Relationships?

By |2017-09-11T18:09:06+00:00March 13th, 2013|Anxiety therapy, relationship issues|

Driving home from his last landscape design consult, thirty-three year old Craig’s stomach was in knots wondering if Sophie would have gotten over the row she had with her mother the other day. He felt bad for his wife who had tried and failed to arrange a family dinner, taking out her frustration on him. His temples began throbbing and his breathing became quick and shallow as he felt the overbearing sense of heaviness that came over him when he approached his front door.

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The Main Barrier to Communication in Marriage is Fear of Listening Empatically

By |2016-12-13T05:19:18+00:00February 19th, 2013|Anxiety therapy, Communication Issues, Communication Problems, Intimacy, relationship issues|

At 8:00 pm one Wednesday night forty-three year dance teacher Erica was paying bills online when her forty-five year old partner Damien, a podiatrist, rushed into the room with a stack of papers that he wanted her to see. He was going on about being sued for malpractice, cussing out the patient and the lawyers. She waited till he finished and then told him it was a legal issue and went back to her bill paying. The tsunami of vitriol that Damien threw at her for not listening or caring made her speechless with rage.

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Complimenting Your Partner Can Cause Relationship Problems!

By |2017-09-13T18:44:37+00:00January 22nd, 2013|Anxiety therapy, Communication Problems, Intimacy, relationship issues|

Thirty-two year upwardly mobile grocery store manager Danny approached life with eager optimism. His colleagues and workers revered him for acknowledging their good points, but his thirty year old wife Rayna, a successful beautician threw his compliments in the trash as if they were dirty wasted hair clippings from her customers. Danny’s patience was tested to its limits one evening when he came home and found Rayna tearing her hair out with problems printing out flyers for a special offer at her salon.

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Develop Good Communication Skills and Solve Marriage Problems

By |2017-09-11T18:47:25+00:00January 15th, 2013|Anger Issues, Anxiety therapy, Communication Issues, Communication Problems, Intimacy, relationship issues|

Gina a twenty-seven year old recent law school graduate was bubbling about her acceptance as an intern at a prestigious law firm. She jumped into the car when her thirty-two year old boyfriend Jake, vice-principle at an elementary school came to pick her up. She started talking excitedly before she strapped her seat belt on, but was gutted when she was abruptly cut off in mid- sentence. Three sentences in Jake sighed, avoided eye contact and told her he had to concentrate on the traffic.

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Self-help For Couples That Actually Works!

By |2017-09-13T20:47:38+00:00January 12th, 2013|Anxiety therapy, Communication Problems, Couples Counseling, Intimacy, relationship issues|

Have you tried reading self-help books on making your relationship work and found the advice sensible but impractical? Perhaps you have been on couples retreats, gone to couples workshops and taken courses on communicating with your partner, gaining intimacy with your spouse and managing conflict with your loved one - but still not succeeded with any degree of consistency. There is a good reason why self-help materials and experiential workshops fail - and that is because you are being taught the skills that work for couples who can do relationships well naturally. They don't have to work through the same tensions, challenges and fears that you do. So when you come to putting those skills into practice the fears that you carry about losing your loved one, driving them away, being cheated on, not being good enough and so on get in the way of the success. It's not that you lack skills or need to learn new ones. It's the fears and insecurities producing relationship stress that get in your way.

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Save Your Marriage With Impactful Communications

By |2017-09-13T20:01:41+00:00December 1st, 2012|Anxiety therapy, Communication Issues, Communication Problems, Intimacy|

Is it getting harder and harder for you to talk to your spouse? Are your moments together filled so much tension that you can't even sit next to your partner any more? Does it feel like you just can't do anything to save your marriage? You can save your marriage if you get past your fear of communicating what you feel without anticipating being dissed.

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How To Manage Doubt and Loneliness After You Have Broken Up With Your Partner

By |2017-09-13T17:08:26+00:00August 10th, 2012|Anxiety therapy, Breakups and Separation, separation counseling|

So you finally got up the nerve to break up with your partner who just wasn't a good fit! The relief is wonderful, but in creeps some doubt, some guilt, some loneliness! The stress is overwhelming! You notice a hole in your life that gets bigger, and that makes you wonder if you did the right thing. You go back and for with wanting to get back together and enjoying the relief of not having to take care of someone else's feelings. How do you fill that hole and feel good about your decision to do what was right for you?

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How To Take A Break From Your Loved One Without Feeling Disloyal

By |2017-09-13T17:09:31+00:00July 27th, 2012|Anxiety therapy, Breakups and Separation|

Are you scared that if you have time with friends, family, colleagues or just alone that you are deserting your loved one? Is the fear of being seen as disloyal stopping you from living a full and satisfying life? The real fear you have is that if you step out of the arena even for a short while to take care of your needs outside the relationship that your loved one will forget you, find someone else or just not want you back.

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