The big day is coming up, with all of the pressure, stress, trappings, dressings, heady expectations and horrific trepidation that you may expect and the truth is that we have created this monster ourselves. Valentines Day is the commercialization of love and marriage as only the show-and-tell culture can do it. Big, loud and all [...]
Marriage counseling is fast way to bring a stop to constant bickering, even when it has plagued a relationship for years. In a long term relationship, constant fighting is actually a mode of communication that has become a habit, repeated over and over again until it is a ‘muscle memory‘ for your partnership. Thankfully, marriage [...]
Intimacy is one of the sought after and fought over aspects of a realtionship and a couple may need counseling to help them better understand and increase intimacy in their relationship. Because it means different things to different people, intimacy can seem like an elusive thing. Intimacy is that certain bond or closeness that you [...]
A marriage in conflict can be the most stressful situation for the couple, their children, loved ones and family members. Conflict, arguments, fighting, no matter what words you use to describe it, the situation is positively screaming for help. There are different types of conflict, and long term conflict is vastly different from casual arguments [...]
Couples counseling can create the kind of understanding and compassion that can be life-changing in a relationship. For a couple who is under stress and in need of real help, counseling teaches communication skills and conflict resolution solutions that helps couples reevaluate where they are, how they got there, and what direction they want to [...]
Many people discuss the issue of maturity when they talk about younger couples and if they are ready for marriage. Usually, when this old adage is being brought up it means that someone doesn’t think one or more of the couple is mature enough to handle the stress and responsibility in marriage. Age for Marriage [...]
It is surprisingly common for couples to enter into marriage counseling because of differences in the perceived correct way to raise children. The process of raising a child can cause major areas of conflict in a relationship, especially if each parent has different ideas on what it means to discipline a child. At its most [...]
Depression is a serious illness that cannot be disregarded or shoved into a corner in the hopes that it will go away on its own. Depression is a treatable illness with real causes, real symptoms and, unfortunately, very real victims. First and foremost, depression affects the primary sufferer. There are many possible causes of depression, [...]
The family bond is one that develops, grows and strengthens over time. As children grow older and families often grow more complex, these bonds can be stressed and tested beyond the ability of the family’s coping skills. Family therapy is one solution that families turn to when the need help in healing, communicating and bonding [...]
Madison and Jeffrey had been dating only a short time before they married. Their courtship was marked by the incredible amount of time that they spent together as a couple. They really never spent a moment apart once they had found each other. When many couples enter into the romance stage of a relationship, it [...]
Women often leave their husbands because their emotional investments in the marriage have not been returned. Very often, marriage counselors working with individual women hear relatively common versions of the same type of marital story. My husband barely knows me anymore. We’re hardly even friends. I feel alone, all the time. Hurt and abandoned. My [...]
Every year there are thousands of marriages that are brought to a grinding halt due to the effects that depression and anxiety take on the partnership. More than a general unhappiness with the marriage or unsatisfactory lifestyle or environment, depression is not something that can be helped by a simple change. Real depression can cause [...]
Don and Heather had been married for close to 25 years and had gone through many of the stages that are common to long term relationships. The Romance, where both Don and Heather saw nothing but the best in each other, could not imagine being apart from one another and felt at peace only in [...]
Throughout the ages, excessive sleep has often been a signal of depression, even when it was not officially recognized as such. Excessive sleepiness, also called Hypersomnia, is an excessively deep or prolonged major sleep period and it is often related to major depression. Hypersomnia is often associated with difficulty in awakening and is believed to [...]
Accepting that you and your spouse need for marriage counseling is not admitting that your relationship has failed. It is admitting that you are both mature enough to ask for help when you need it most. Before attending marriage counseling, Sue had said: If you really love each other ,you don’t need a counselor to [...]
Marriage and Family therapists much consistently manage the complex relationships and unique dynamics involved in people’s lives. More than couples, marriage and family therapists must be able to treat groups and the different ways in which groups bond and interact, consistently playing off of one another and reacting from one to act on another. In [...]
Every year there are thousands of couples entering into marriage counseling with the complaint that outside friendships and influences have played too big a role in the destruction of their marriage. Friendships and family are a huge part of what makes up a person’s internal monitor of what is and isn’t acceptable or right. If [...]
Changes in a long term relationship are generally slow to take place and build up over the years. Small changes, small hesitations in communication and the miniscule holding back of affection that builds into distance, silence and finally a breakdown of a fundamental bond are all process that take time. This is the kind of [...]
Not every marriage is the kind that experiences its full real difficulties when the married couple has been married a few years and some major life changes have taken their toll on the relationship. Sometimes a couple who depended on “true love” to guide them through it all are often those same ones that find [...]
Opposites attract is a phrase that has given hope to competing personalities everywhere who have felt drawn to a person not at all like them. The idea that you don’t need to have that much in common in order to be together, that opposing thoughts and beliefs can join together perfectly in a crazy family-comedy [...]
Many religious organizations are advising that couples enter into pre-martial counseling as a part of their preparations for entering into the commitment of marriage. Given the rising rates of divorce and the detrimental effect this has on families, this sort of intervention is understandable. Pre-Marital Counseling And Evaluating The Health Of Relationships When a couple [...]
Therapy is a deeply personal process and different people expect different outcomes from it. Reactions to therapy and the different ways in which it affects future actions are as various as the people who are seeking it out in the first place, however there are some very common thoughts that can be seen as general [...]
Paul and Aubrey had spent the past few years in an unhappy marriage. While they hadn’t thought that divorce was ever an option, Aubrey admitted that lately, she thought that maybe Paul was thinking in that direction. Together, they had four grown children who Aubrey had raised almost alone during the rise of Paul’s career. [...]
Accepting the role of a counselor is a humanizing experience. A professional and effective counselor is not always the stereotypical counselor with a big comfy couch and a quiet office. Counseling sometimes needs to take place over the phone, sometimes needs to take place over the internet and occasionally needs to take place outdoors. For [...]
Stages of intimacy in a marriage, for the purpose of this discussion, have nothing to do with physical intimacy and everything to do with creating emotional intimacy and space. Emotional intimacy, the closeness between two people that is grown and developed over time into a secure and trusting bond, is important to the health of [...]
The sheer availability and popularity of social networking websites has enabled many families to stay in touch with one another even when separated by long distances. In some cases, however, it has also exacerbated emotional distancing techniques that are detrimental to healthy family communication and lasting, sustainable relationships. When family members are kept apart by [...]
Everyone has certain buttons that, when pushed, bring out the worst in them. For many people there are issues with fear and loss of control, for others there are fears of vulnerability. Often, control and vulnerability are sides of the same coin. Both of these types of fears can cause reactions that are essentially adrenaline [...]
Arguments and fights can become a cycle of frustration and resentment in a marriage. Marriage counseling can help you break that cycle and find new satisfaction and happiness in a relationship that you may have even thought was hopeless. When a couple is fighting all of the time, it is a habitual way of acting [...]
Individual counseling is helpful for those who have been trapped in abusive relationships after suffering sometimes years of abuse, but it is also helpful for those who themselves are trapped in cycle of abuse and anger, hostage to their own impulse control. Counseling can help each person in a relationship become better people, better loved [...]
When your relationship is in deep trouble, you may have a difficult time addressing underlying issues in a single session. Relationships in crisis often need a concentrated effort that delves deep into issues and stops the emotional bleeding that can cause irreparable damage. A relationship in crisis is one that needs fast and effective help. [...]
