Relationship Ebbs and Flows

Relationship Ebbs and Flows

Those times when we are in the ‘flow’ with our partner is just so very precious! Which can make the inevitable ‘ebbs’ just plain yukky. While I don’t particularly like them either, it helps when I remember that so much of our world has a natural ebb and flow to it,...
Nourishing Good Will

Nourishing Good Will

Good will is generated so effortlessly in the beginning of a romantic relationship, we don’t even know we’re doing it—it just ‘happens’! It’s what draws us together in the first place—all of that good stuff: the laughter, the smiles, the hanging out together, the...
A Simple Tool to Promote Harmony & Good Will in Relationships

A Simple Tool to Promote Harmony & Good Will in Relationships

You might be familiar with John Gottman’s Four Horseman (the four behaviors most detrimental to harmony in a relationship): Criticism, Defensiveness, Stonewalling and Contempt. Each has an antidote, and the antidote to criticizing is to complain well. When we live...
Discover your Love Language

Discover your Love Language

This is one of the simplest tools around, and yet, quite impressive—and effective—with the insights it can offer a couple Years ago, Gary Chapman identified five different love languages, and indeed they are ‘languages’ and indeed, there are five different ways people...
Managing Emotional Triggers

Managing Emotional Triggers

Everyone gets triggered. It’s not an ‘if’, it’s a ‘when’. We might be triggered by reminders of unwanted memories, uncomfortable topics, another person’s words or actions, or even one’s own behaviors. How do you know if you’ve been triggered? By listening to your mind...
Navigating Negative Emotions

Navigating Negative Emotions

You may have noticed, I have an earlier blog titled The Opportunity behind Difficult Emotions.  This is often the work I do in my office with someone—examining the longing, the story, the need, behind negative emotions or emotional rupture between two...