Feeling betrayed by a mate is profoundly devastating. Betrayal is usually associated with infidelity, but even in its absence, emotional betrayal creates great pain and deep marital discord. Knowing how to manage episodes of betrayal is essential to the stability and security of marital connection. In “The war of the Roses: An Interdependence Analysis of […]
One of the healthiest things that we can do for our relationship, is setting up healthy boundaries. Boundaries are a key component of self-care, and in order to set them up right you’ve got to know where to begin. If you have difficulty saying no, override your needs to please others, or are bothered by someone (even […]
When a woman finds herself in the middle or the end of a relationship with a narcissistic man, she can’t but help wonder “How did I end up with this man!” The key to a quick recovery, is not to beat yourself up over what happened, rather to understand what attracted you to this man […]
Winston Churchill once said, “I do not ask how the wounded person feels. I simply become that wounded person.” Far too often, our society loses touch of this basic principle of empathy. And I am no exception. In fact, I have been quite the opposite for the past several months, writhing in pain from discovering […]
This week our theme is “Conflict Relief.” It’s about getting to the core issue and doing our best to clear it so it doesn’t run our life. Ironically, by talking about ‘conflict relief,’ what do you think happened? We invited more “conflict” in. In other words, the “storms” are brewing and in order to burn […]
Infidelity is one of the leading causes of divorce; it nearly doubles the chance that a couple will get divorced. And even though we live in a sexually tolerant society, still more than 90% of Americans say infidelity is morally wrong. Statistics on infidelity Although it is hard to do research on how common infidelity is, […]
In my psychiatric practice I’ve seen how hard it is for my patients to break up with a partner who’s a narcissist. Narcissists can make you fall in love with them so hard that it feels like you’re giving up a part of your heart to leave them. And they use every manipulation in the […]
Ten Question Quiz: Answer these questions honestly, and you will be able to gauge the likelihood of your marriage being affected by infidelity. 1) We decided to get married less than a year after we met. 2) You are both aged under 25 years old. 3) Your partner has unexplained mood swings that are hard […]
Many people, including myself earlier in life, view friendship and even love as something requiring chaos and dysfunction. It’s what many people saw growing up, and so it is how they define a close or intimate relationship. So if the highs and lows are missing in a relationship, many people will create it in […]
Chris: Joe, again, thanks so much for being on the show. I’m really excited to chat with you. I’m recently engaged so every time I learn about somebody who is knowledgeable about relationships I just can’t wait to talk to them because what I’ve learned is it is impossible to … maybe not impossible, but […]