Stop Automating your Partner!

What I learned from a quality espresso machine. A sticky coffee situation “Give me room to grow!” I found myself asking my husband when we recently got stuck in a triggering conversation about spending money, being on the same team, and assuming we could predict each other’s feelings, intentions, and reactions. A little background: he […]

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It’s Over- Now what?

Stress seems to be the buzz word of the year. The level of trauma is at an all-time high.  Many people are struggling to manage the pandemic, racial tension, economic stresses, loss of friends and loved ones, and a host of other difficulties.   Another concern showing up time and time again is stress in […]

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Save Your Relationship in Two Short Phrases

We see things not as they are but as we are. ~ The Talmud Phenomenon vs. story According to the Mirriam-Webster dictionary, a phenomenon is “an observable fact or event,”  “an object or aspect known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition.”  The dictionary also defines a phenomenon as “an exceptional, unusual, or […]

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Patience, Patience, Patience

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.  It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.” Carl Jung This pandemic with all its restrictions, limitations, and constraints is challenging my […]

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Expressing empathy feels particularly hard right now!

“In order to empathize with your experience, I must be willing to believe you as you see your experience and not how I imagine your experience to be.” Brené Brown All my survival instincts are on high alert and every possible transgression, thoughtless action or selfish choice kicks me into a level of outrage that […]

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How to stay together when you’re never apart: Surviving couplehood during the coronavirus

In the past eight weeks of quarantine, my husband and I have regularly commented that we are not sure how we would have survived a lockdown if our now-grown four children had been toddlers or elementary school kids or even high schoolers, desperately negotiating to be with their friends…We have deep respect and appreciation for […]

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Three Steps To “Hearing” Your Partner

Relationship experts observe that even in long-term relationships described as “successful,” differences and conflicts may exist that are never fully resolved. How is this possible? It’s possible because the failure of relationships lies not so much in the existence of differences and conflicts, which are inevitable but in the ruptured connection between the partners.  In […]

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A New Year, a New Decade, A New Me

5 Steps to guide you in leaving the past behind and moving toward your future We all say goodbye many times throughout our lives. We say goodbye to friends, family, homes, jobs, businesses, lovers, and relationships. We also say goodbye to periods of our lives. On the precipice of saying goodbye to the 2010’s and […]

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Why go to couples therapy if you already have a great relationship?

If like me, you were raised to believe that therapy meant something was wrong with you, you are not alone. I have come to learn by personal experience and witnessing others’ experiences that therapy can be both a path to transformation and a path to learning skills and tools to maintain healthy minds, emotions, and […]

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Can We Talk About Sex?

Is there a pattern here? “When was the last time you two had sex and was it satisfying?” Couples coming to me for the first time will be asked this question. I usually tell them that some therapists say that “if you fix the sex, the rest will follow,” and others say: “if you fix […]

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