Depression can cause an overwhelming divide in your relationship with your partner. Because the effects of depression reach out well past the victim and cause suffering to the closest loved ones, it is not a condition that can be handled as a separate entity in the relationship. Often, couples counseling helps affected couples to learn [...]
One of the time honored traditions at wedding showers is for guests to write their wedding or marriage advice into a guest journal. This is then, usually, supposed to be kept by the couple and read over to do with as they wish. While many people will tell you to not listen to the advice [...]
The incredible audience reached through multiple media outlets has led to generations of people who view lifelong relationships through the looking glass of a romance novel. The simple truth is that few movies, television programs or novels concentrate real time on the daily trials and difficulties of a relationship. The heady romance of the beginning [...]
Relationships mean more than what is between you and your partner. Relationships include a broad range of social interactions and individuals ranging from family to friends to acquaintances. You can even form a casual relationship with your dry cleaner clerk if you are seeing them once a week when you drop off your clothes. Every [...]
Marriage counseling is one of those places where a person tends to reveal their secrets. Secrets within the boundaries of a relationship are nothing new and often nothing bad, just small things that we keep to ourselves that we don’t want other people knowing. Often these types of secrets are just personal vulnerabilities that we [...]
Caryn and Robert had been high school sweethearts and married after graduating college. Both career professionals, they enjoyed a rich life full of trips, adventures and vacations before they settled down to have children. After the birth of their first child, Marta, there developed a growing schism between them that had difficult with. Robert was [...]
Couples Therapy involves deep and thoughtful discussion and emotional investment about highly personal issues. Because of the personal nature of these issues, therapy should be more than the result of choosing a counselor out of the yellow pages and sticking with them no matter what. Couples counseling involves a trust between the counselor and the [...]
There are many marriage counseling alternative self-help programs on the market these days, and I’ve been fortunate enough to review nearly all of them. The one I like the best so far is Mort Fertel’s “Marriage Fitness,” so I’ve decided to name it the “2009 Best Marriage Self Help Program.” One of the things I [...]
Public Records include everything from birth certificates to marriage certificates to death certificates and all of them now essentially easily searchable thanks to the internet. Marriage Records A marriage record has some very specific vital information included on it. A marriage certificate includes the date of the marriage, names of the witness(es) involved as well [...]
Family Therapy is something that most families attend when things get really difficult and they aren’t sure where else to turn. For some families, however, it is the last stop before a divorce. It is common for judges to require family therapy if a couple with children has filed for divorce. This is done to [...]
Ellen and Joe were unhappy in their marriage but, instead of separating, they chose to let their unhappiness become a habit that had taken up years of their lives. When Ellen decided that it was time to either fix the marriage or get out of it completely, Joe was surprised and annoyed. Ellen wanted to [...]
A quickie Vegas Style marriage doesn’t inevitably mean a quickie divorce. Many couples have married on a spur-of-the-moment decision and found the path to happiness and success. Shelly and Tim were best friends for years. They had never dated, but often supported one another in separate romantic relationships. Tim and I were just graduating from [...]
Eric and Alex had what they and everyone else around them considered as perfect a marriage as could be found. They had dated for two years before Eric proposed then went to pre-marital counseling before the wedding to be sure that, on that special day, they had done everything they could to ensure a successful, [...]
It is fascinating to see couples have that moment in marriage counseling when they realize something completely new and unsuspected about their spouse’s feelings. It is common for couples who have been married for decades to make the assumption that they know all about one another, that they know exactly what the other is feeling [...]
Marriages and Long Term Relationships usually take advantage of the honeymoon stage in their initial formation. The honeymoon stage is characterized by a feeling of well-being and physical desire for each other. This feeling is intense, with all the newness and excitement stimulated by the production of chemicals in your bodies that increase energy and [...]
Treatment for anxiety disorders is often recommended by family doctors of patients who present with chest pains and potential heart concerns. After complete medical work ups focusing on potential heart problems turn up clear, often times the family doctor will begin a longer discussion with their patient about the conditions surrounding these frequent attacks. It [...]
Living together before marriage has become very common in many social and cultural circles. Most people say that it gives them a better understanding of what their partner is really like, 24 hours a day because, quite simply, you can’t put your “best face on” all the time, every day. Eventually the masque slips and [...]
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression strikes over 20 million Americans each year, with over half of those being women. Understanding depression is difficult for both the person who is suffering and those that suffering in association within the family. Spousal communication can be difficult for many marriages even in the best [...]
While Marriage Counseling and Couples Counseling are terms that are often used interchangeably, it isn’t always the case. Marriage is defined by different people, different states and different governments, all in very different ways and terms. Couples who have been together for many years, even many decades, might have chosen not to legally marry because [...]
Your first couples counseling session is traditionally something that both you and your partner will attend together. After all, there are two of you in the relationship and healing that relationship will require work and dedication from both of you. As with any relationship-related process, couples counseling won’t work if only one of you is [...]
When a relationship is at a volatile point and couples counseling is sought, there should be some sort of thought that goes into preparing for your first session. After you and your partner decide that couples counseling is your next step together you will then decide on an actual counselor to go and see. During [...]
Gender roles are learned behaviors that have been reinforced in social groups, especially family. For Sean and Debby, the difference in their learned Gender roles played a large part in the disruption of their marriage. Debby said: Growing up, there was a clear division of girl chores and boy chores in our home. My mother [...]
Debby thought she was being pretty straightforward with Sean when she told him, “We’re having issues with our sex roles.” Sean, like many people would, immediately thought of the bedroom. He was understandably confused because, while their marriage was rocky at that moment, the actual sex seemed to be the one thing they were getting [...]
Family therapy is one of the best options available when a couple goes from a romantic twosome to busy team leaders raising children. The past decades have seen a massive change in the dynamic of women’s roles and, more often than not, the women having children are busy career professionals that lead already personally demanding [...]
Many people enjoy a good, healthy argument now and again. While most could leave hurtful words and yelling out of the picture, arguing is a natural occurrence in any relationship and is necessary in order to maintain the full expression of self even in a close, long term relationship. Healthy arguments are a natural and [...]
Many readers have written to us in response to the post on Emotional Infidelity and how many aspects of it can also be considered role transference. Emotional infidelity is most usually described as the emotional attachment to someone who is not your spouse but is essentially filling every role usually played out except for the [...]
The economic crisis and financial woes that are gripping our country have taken their toll on many marriages, as well as many bank accounts. Its no secret that stress over financial concerns have a high price on the emotional well being of couples who, in the past, had no money worries to fight about. Not [...]
Couples counselors see couples suffering from a variety of marital and relational breakdowns, but many of these relationships broke down because of a simple case of boredom. When a couple becomes complacent about their relationship and allows an amount of boredom to set in, they are setting the stage for a “grass is always greener [...]
As a culture, we celebrate many milestones in our personal lives and public lives. National holidays become picnics and parades, local events and neighborhood celebrations. Personal holidays are a time for family to get together and sing, cook and exchange gifts or tokens of remembrance. When a couple begins to ignore their anniversary, this is [...]
There are so many reasons couples give for marrying that it almost seems inevitable that everyone will be married and those who aren’t are just too darn picky. By the time many couples are entering into marriage counseling, they usually have the ability to look back and realistically recognize the reasons for which they got [...]
