In the last article, 7 Reasons Why Your Relationship Might Not Make It, I wrote about the 7 relationship skills that have a tremendous impact on your relationship. Here’s a recap: Communication. Knowing how to communicate in a healthy way makes a huge difference. This includes listening, keeping a majority of your interactions positive, and …
Loving Relationships Have These Two Things in Common Read More »
When it comes to having a happy and healthy relationship, there is all kinds of advice out there. Some advice is good, and some not so good. When it comes to advice, it is important to think about the source. There are relationship “experts” who aren’t “walking their talk”. Unfortunately, some also provide disastrous advice …
7 Reasons Why Your Relationship Might Not Make It Read More »
Ah love…First you meet each other, then you fall in love, and then if it reaches this point, you decide to get married. It’s wonderful, those first months and years of being in a serious relationship. It’s at that stage in your relationship that maybe you laugh more together. You do more fun things. You …
Why You Might Be Headed Down the Road to Divorce and What You Can Do About It Read More »
I’m going to bet you’ve either heard of or you’ve read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I read the book a long time ago when someone gave it to me as a gift. I remember thinking it was really helpful (at that time, I remember too, that there were a few typos). The …
A lot of conflict in relationships boils down to one thing: You and/or your partner aren’t getting your needs met. Everyone has basic needs–like food, shelter, and water. But do you know what your needs are when it comes to your relationship? These are the needs that are the unconscious drivers behind every choice you …
John Gottman and Nan Silver share their research-backed principles for successful marriages in the book The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (1999). In the book, Gottman and Silver describe the signs they look for that can predict divorce. Their research found the following signs, signs they say predict that couples will ultimately divorce: 1. a harsh startup …
One of the assignments for a class in my Marriage and Family Therapy program was to think of an issue relevant to families today and create a program for the issue. Fun (I love this subject!)! Our program couldn’t be based on opinion, it had to be backed by current research. I named my program “How not to …
No one gets married with the intention of eventually getting a divorce. We all want to buy into that optimistic dream of living happily ever after. After all, who wants a divorce? Divorce can be traumatic, expensive, it can tear apart a home, affect children for the rest of their lives, and send some people into poverty (usually …
On one of my many trips to Disneyworld when my kids were younger, we sat behind an older couple of about sixty-five or seventy years old on a ride. For the entirety of the ride around Animal Kingdom, the woman berated her husband. He did not say one word while she, without raising her voice, …
Relationship Killers–5 Ways You May be Sabotaging Your Relationship Read More »
Have you ever been out in public and a couple has caught your attention–and not in a good way? Maybe they’re mean to one another, or one of them is ogling another person in their vicinity? It’s uncomfortable to watch. And what is so obvious in other couples may be harder to see in our …
This past week a reader (who will remain anonymous) posed a really interesting question: Is it okay if a parent tells their child that the reason for the family splitting up is because the other parent had an affair? And going further I would add, is there a certain age in which it’s appropriate to …
To Tell or Not to Tell–Should Kids Know About Their Parent’s Affair? Read More »
If you want to keep your marriage healthy and happy, there are four things you definitely do not want to do, so says John Gottman of the Gottman Institute. 1. Criticism. This is criticism of your partner, not their behaviors, but an aspect of their personality or their character. The one who is doing the …
