Sex. It’s everywhere! It’s on TV, movies, the internet, magazines. And yet, for many couples, sex remains somewhat a mystery. Many couples enter into sexual relationships assuming that their sex lives will be like what they’ve seen in the media, only to find that *gasp* it’s quite different. So then they turn to magazines and…
Before I got married, I had a lot of people offer me warnings: “You’ll probably fight a lot more,” “There will be little things about him that annoy you” and so on. However, there was one warning that no one gave me, but turned out to be huge. Sleeping with someone when you’re used to…
Could suppressing negative emotions actually harm relationships more than help them? Holding back, reducing, or inhibiting ongoing emotions is known in the research world as “emotional suppression.” And we’ve all experienced emotional suppression. If you have ever hidden a worry to avoid worrying someone else or suppressed negative emotions that could lead someone to judge…
“I love you, but you’re being ridiculous right now.” “I’m sorry you’re hurt, but what I said was true.” “I’m sorry for what I said about your parents, but they were driving me crazy.” “I shouldn’t have done that, but you shouldn’t have said what you did.” All of these statements are ones you may…
When I tell people I am getting a Master’s degree in Marriage, Family, and Human Development they immediately jump to the conclusion that I want to do therapy. Like them, when I began my degree in Family Studies my intention was to go into therapy because that was what I knew. I believed couples were…
Times are changing, this is nothing new. One particular area of change has been marriage trends, especially who is marrying whom. Before the 1960s, only 20% of married couples were interfaith – with each spouse having their own faith different from the other – currently around 39% of marriages are. Interfaith marriages bring with them…
We’ve all hoped that we strike a good in-law deal, that our parents accept our fiancé/e, and that our life-long friends will be excited about our newest love interest. From the 16th century tale of Romeo and Juliet to the modern theme of the Spice Girls (“If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get…
Close friends and family are often the first line of support people go to when experiencing relationship difficulties. When things get hard in a marriage or with a girl/boy-friend, it is really nice to have someone to talk to about it. While there may be limits on how much information is too much information, usually…
There is No One-Size-Fits-All Regimen to Marriage Arguments, but These Are a Few Recommendations. Some of the most challenging parts of a young marriage are the biases and preconceived notions that a partner will bring to a relationship from his or her parents. Yes, we come into a relationship very biased on how it…
We Often Hear We Need to Be Tolerant People, But Does That Necessarily Make Sense in a Marriage? We hear a lot of people talk about tolerance. So, what does tolerance mean by definition? Tol · er · ance (n): The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or…
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