In Counseling
Seven Signs Your Marriage Will Last
A strong marriage starts with love between two people who are well-matched with similarities on many dimensions. Yet marital problems are inevitable as the early stage of love… when both partners focus on their shared positive qualities moves forward to the stage of addressing differences. LIfe also almost inevitably brings (MORE)
What’s Up With Online Therapy and Marriage Counseling?
Is web-based therapy the way of the future? And is the future already here now? Read More
The Crime of Individual Therapy for Married People
If not criminal, is it at least a very mistaken, albeit common, practice to treat individuals without assessing the family context of the therapy client’s life? Read More
What’s All This Talk About Couple “Communication Skills?”
We all know how to talk. So why do couples therapists teach “communication skills” to couples that are having relationship troubles? Read More
Options for the Unhappily Married
Country music group Pistol Annies poignantly sings about how marriage can become a trap. At the same time, the words suggest ways to open the trap and find routes to happiness, Read More
A Marriage Therapist’s View Of Our Dysfunctional Government
Our government leaders’ animosities toward each other could be steering us toward national disaster. From a family therapist’s perspective, what they need to change is simple and clear. And it’s not about the money. Read More
From Thin-Skin to Win-Win: How Couples Counseling Helps
Are you and your loved one living the opposite of happily ever after? If your partnership is yielding fear, resentment or anger, maybe it’s time to reverse the trend. Couples counseling can help. How do therapists convert a relationship that generates fear and frustration to one that feels safe, supportive and enriching? Read More
Why Do Marriage Therapists Undertreat Sexual Problems?
Surprisingly few marriage therapists inquire in sufficient detail about the frequency and satisfaction levels of their couples’ sexual activity, or focus enough on sexual issues during treatment. Read More
Stress in Relationships: 10 Sources and Their Antidotes
Stressful circumstances inevitably, from time to time, land on every couple’s doorstep. It’s what happens next that make stress either shrink or grow. Read More
Want Marriage Problems? Expect Your Spouse to Be Perfect
Odds are that if you have a tendency to criticize your spouse, you mistakenly have been expecting perfection. Big mistake. Read More
Can Energy Therapies Augment Conventional Couple Therapy?
I’m a conventional therapist who has become convinced that some of the new energy therapy techniques need to become a standard part of every psychotherapist’s repertoir. Here’s why. Read More
Couples Therapy: The Four Questions
Leonardo Niño Rodríguez, a journalist in Colombia South America, recently interviewed me for a state-of-the-art assessment of couples therapy. The four questions he asked me on behalf of readers of SEMANA Magazine, the leading Colombian news magazine, struck me as questions that may be of similar interest to readers of PsychologyToday.com. Read More
Look Back on Your Childhood: The Better Marriage Project Part II
Gaining an adult’s perspective on the childhood relationships that formed templates for your marriage relationship can be very helpful. Journalist Elizabeth Weil’s candid new book No Cheating, No Dying relates how she and her husband learned from their pasts to enhance their love in the present. Read More
What Increases Marriage Satisfaction?
Does perfect love result in a perfect marriage of two spouses who “live happily ever after?” Not so says forthright and funny journalist Elizabeth Weil, author of the newly released marriage-upgrade saga No Cheating, No Dying. And according to recent marriage research, that kind of perfection is not even desirable. Read More
Beware: Individual Therapy Can Harm Your Marriage
Individual therapy is often helpful. A therapist can provide emotional support and guidance for changes. But divorce can be an iatrogenic (therapist-induced) side effect of individual therapy for married folks. Read More
