"I don't want to go on a hike!" whines my 9-year old son James, "My ankles hurt" groans my 12-year old daughter Ella. The complaints are constant these days, but I'm not phased. It's natural for kids to push back, but there are times when we as parents need to press...
How to Succeed in Marriage Counseling When couples start working with me they often ask about my success rate. I usually answer, “When I have a couple with both spouses willing to take 100% responsibility for their part of the relationship, we’ll be 100% successful.”...
Are You Lonely? Have you ever felt lonely in a crowd? When you're amongst family and friends, have you ever felt lonely? Do you ever feel lonely in your closest relationship? Loneliness Loneliness has been called a national healthcare crisis because of the...
Summer Family Fun! It’s Memorial Day- in my opinion it’s the official kick off to Summer Family Fun! This year I have an excess amount of enthusiasm for family fun as my kids are now 12 and 10 and share my love for all things summer. Over the past 10 years, I’ve made...
What is trust? Is it given or is it earned? Is trust something that one loses and never regains? Trust is a vital part of relationships, so vital it could be viewed as its own entity.
Shame identified. Shame is the unseen driver behind many challenges couples experience in their relationship. In my previous blog, Shame Part 1, I mentioned that shame can be difficult to identify. I explained how shame can work in secret when we do not know what it...
Are you struggling in your marriage? Have you talked and talked but seem to get nowhere? Have you tried marriage counseling and it didn’t work? Or are you silently suffering, feeling so disappointed that this place of “roommate status" is where you find yourselves...
“Real men don’t cry.“ “Stop being such a baby.“ “Toughen up and be a man.“ “You don’t have time for all that touchy-feely stuff.“ Do any of these statements sound familiar to you? If they do, chances are you may have heard them from other men- your dad, your boss,...
The Power of Shame Shame is one of the most powerful and harmful feelings we all have as humans. Shame silently and secretly undermines many relationships. Marriage may be the relationship where shame does its most significant damage. It can work in secret when we...
5 Benefits of Premarital Counseling Why ask for help when everything feels great? ‘Happy, healthy, and head over heels’! Does this describe you? Or are you in the literal or metaphorical “honeymoon” phase of your relationship? If so, the last thing on your mind...