Are You Living Far Away From Your Family?

long-distance-relationship

Are you a transplant from another state? Does your family live in another country? Did a job or a sense of adventure bring you here? How does that reality sit with you now that you are the parent of a baby, a toddler or a child? Perhaps it lands differently than when you set out […]

Creativity+Reality+Humor = A Great Blog

Has a post on Facebook ever just reached out and grabbed your attention? Two weeks ago that is what happened to me. I sat at my desk reading a blog and it wasn’t long until Melissa Bowers, the Michifornia Girl, had me under her spell. The blog was titled: Why I Cannot In Good Conscience Participate […]

Toxic Waste: Avoid This At All Cost!

caution dangerous love

Some of you are going to roll your eyes at this question. Do you want to be happy? I can hear you now. Of course I want to be happy. Everyone wants to have a meaningful life, to feel fulfilled, to share friendship and love, and to enjoy life. Yet do we really want what […]

What Are You Pretending Not To Know?

sex must always be a choice

The topic of sexuality is often raised in the counseling office. It is not unusual to run into one partner who feels deprived and one who feels force-fed. Each is invested in getting the other to change. The power struggles are in full swing with “my way battling my way.” Mutual misery prevails. How can […]

A Counterintuitive Move That Led To Healing

How To Resolve A Fight

What is your first reaction when your spouse has reacted negatively to you, either by distancing or attacking, for no apparent reason? If you have a belly button you have probably reacted with one or more of these moves. In fact as you read this list admit the ones that have become second nature to […]

You Will Tick Each Other Off

ticked off spouse

In the next two weeks both a nephew and a niece of mine are choosing to marry the love of their life. From the vantage point of almost 45 years (August 7) I began to think of what piece of wisdom I wanted to give the two couples. After much thought I decide to inform […]

The Most Courageous Question That A Spouse Can Ask

risky questions

If I were to ask you what you think is a question that you could ask your mate that would require a great deal of courage on your part, what would you choose as your question? One of my male clients dared to ask his wife this question. “What is it like to have me […]

5 Ways To Foster Your Happiness

Choosing Happiness

Are you secretly hoping that you can find someone who will love you and make you happy? If so you are going to be sadly disappointed. No one else can be the source of your happiness. Are you secretly hoping that your loving attention can make someone else happy? I hope not because that thought […]

Freedom: What Is In Your Space?

marriage freedom

Wisdom From The World: “Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is the power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor E. Frankle “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” – John F. Kennedy “Free speech carries with it the […]