Connect2 Marriage Counseling

Tag: commitment

  • Kids and Marital Satisfaction

    Kids and marital satisfaction have been studied a lot. Research “More than a hundred studies show that marital satisfaction falls off a cliff after the birth of the first child and doesn’t get much better until the last child leaves for college,”  writes John Gartner, Ph.D in ‘Child.ol’.a.try’ in Psychology Today. Yikes! How Come Kids…

  • Are You Communicating More or Less?

    Are You Communicating More or Less? Isn’t it true that everywhere we go these days people are talking, texting, scrolling and swiping on devices? I find myself wondering if we had this much to say before we had these devices? I don’t recall being on our landlines telephones constantly . . . And yet, is…

  • Not Witty or Fun for Families

    As a follow on to the last post, about serial relationships, on TV, at least, it all looks witty or fun, in which the “conversation with their ex, in front of their new spouse while their kids look on soaking it all up” I would venture to say from what I see and hear in…

  • What is the New Couple’s Paradigm These Days?

    Dear Chandrama, What is the new couple’s paradigm these days? On TV and in movies one seems to see a lot of serial relationships. Almost every character is dealing with an ex, and kids, and the incumbent problems. – Curious Dear Curious, Great question. I am certain that when the majority of people say, “I…

  • Kitten Rescue

    I have been trying to rescue a feral kitten from my yard this week. It reminds me of couples wanting love and connection from one another, and yet not able to quite get it. Or maybe not being able or ready to commit to it. The kitten, whom I have taken to calling Buster, is…

  • Personal Weather Report (TM)

    Your partner can not read your mind, and my husband can not read mine, either. You actually have to say what’s on your mind. One homework exercise I like to give is to have couples give each other a Personal Weather Report (TM) once or twice a day. This is also helpful in finding specific…

  • Couples Therapy: Professional Opinion of “Hope Springs”

    I realize that Tommy Lee Jones has been in a lot of movies. I see many movies with my teenage son, and so when I saw Meryl Streep with Tommy Lee Jones, all I could think of right off the bat was, ‘Agent K.’ I think many people wish they had a neuralyzer to use…

  • Premarital and Couples: Do you Fight, Flight, or Freeze?

    When you are triggered or flooded — i.e., upset or overwhelmed — do you fight, take flight, or freeze? These are the biologically wired-in options for humans. This has made us survive as a species. You need this tool; it also gets in your way in your relationship at times. I often see couples where…

  • Couples Counseling, Al Pacino Style

    I had the pleasure of listening to Pete Pearson of the Couple’s Institute in Menlo Park talk about the importance of working as a team in couple’s counseling. He showed the following video clip of Al Pacino giving an inspirational talk to his football team before a big game, and asked us to think about how it…

  • Premarital and Couples: Permanent Record

    We had dinner with our friends recently and learned that their son kept a “Permanent Record” of things his parents had done wrong during his childhood (e.g., they never had a dog). While it was funny, and piece of their family fabric and storytelling, the sad truth is that many of you keep a Permanent…