A gentle note: Couple’s skills are meant to support healthy connection. If something in your relationship feels confusing, belittling, or unsafe, it can be helpful to first read Is Verbal Abuse Really Abuse?   before practicing communication tools. Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now captures something many couples struggle to name: how easily certainty hardens, and how quickly understanding slips away when emotions take over. In close relationships, moments of conflict often fee

Originally posted January 30, 2018. Banish those negative feelings! Nurturing your connection is important. It’s important to connect positively every day! Research by John Gottman, Ph.D., the grandaddy of marriage counseling, shows that for every negative interaction, five positive ones are needed to compensate to keep up a positive balance of feelings. Happy, stable marriages naturally fall into the 5:1 ratio. The good news is you can consciously make an effort to

Originally posted August 15, 2017. Robin Blakely is the co-director of The Creative Center of America , where the scope of work encompasses securing and managing promotional placements at print, broadcast, and live venues that have included: ABC, NBC, CBS, HGTV, The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, The Golden Door Spa, The Hollywood Reporter, ABC World News, Vanity Fair, and more. Kathy’s intervi

Complexity of Marriage Therapy, Part Three: Dr. Sue Johnson and Emotion Focused Therapy: Modifying Adult Attachment Patterns Originally...

Originally posted October 15, 2013. Losing a baby through miscarriage or stillbirth leads causes an increase in suffering, including disbelief, grief, shock, denial, anger, sadness and anxiety. These strong and primal emotions can take a toll on your marriage relationship. Recent research published by Dr. Katherine Gold and her colleagues in the journal, Pediatrics, indicates that couples who experience miscarriage or stillbirth have a greater chance of divorce than coup

This post shares a personal reflection related to perinatal experience. It is offered to foster understanding and connection, not as clinical guidance. Comparing Scars The course of a marriage is often turned, sharply, by incidents that might pass in a moment but can define them for years, until another incident becomes another corner. Looking back on my marriage, there are three of them that I now realise shaped our new family. The first was during late pregnancy with ou

This post is part of an ongoing series of conversations with professionals in the perinatal mental health field. It is offered to share perspectives, not as clinical guidance. Biography: Suzanne Swanson, Ph.D., is an activist in many areas of Maternal Mental Health. Since 2006, she has been the Postpartum Support International (PSI) Minnesota Coordinator. By 2007, along with a collective group of perinatal mental health professionals, she helped form the Pregnancy and Po

Originally posted June 7, 2012. ”Positive feeling systems must be built and maintained intentionally (as part of couples therapy or...

Originally published April 2, 2012. Understanding how labor patterns have changed can help reduce fear, self-blame, and unnecessary anxiety around childbirth. Research was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Katherine Laughon, MD, and her colleagues, D. Ware Branch, M.D., Julie Beaver, M.S, and Jun Zhang, Ph.D., M.D., (2012) examined differences in childbirth labor patterns over the past fifty years, comparing data from a large study in the 1960’

Originally posted April 1, 2012. Science and Sensibility I am honored and hope that I can do a good job for Lamaze International for the month of April as their Guest Community Manager for the Science and Sensibility. Stop in here and take a look at my introduction and the the happenings over at Science and Sensibility for the month of April! thanks! Take care,

Originally published February 11, 2012. You remember the intensity at the beginning of your relationship: you were enveloped in an...

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. – Dalai Lama Dr. Ann Becker-Schutte wrote a blog post called Invisible Pain , discussing how people with chronic invisible illnesses such as fibromyalgia, diabetes, Cushings Disease, etc. might be silently suffering and dismissed as having pain “all in their head.” Her post reminded me of a video on You Tube posted on Facebook by one of my therapist friends, Carol Rosen . It shows a man who, with special glasses, can tel

Originally posted October 9, 2011. This is a personal reflection shared in honor of World Mental Health Day, offered to reduce stigma and remind others that help, healing, and hope are possible. Hey there! Honored to be part of PsychCentral’s World Mental Health Day Blog Party! Today, as an LPC, I could write another professional blog about treatment options or family dynamics; like outline a specific self-care relaxation, expressive or cognitive re-framing exercise. But,

Pregnancy is a time of spiritual & psychological growth, but can also be a time of uncertainty. Personal issues as being in a relationship, balancing career and motherhood, and being a good parent may start to show up. During this time of change, intense emotions may come up as you re-evaluate your ideas about life and relationships. Much joy and much stress may show up, as you wonder about how it will be to become a parent. If you experienced abuse in your past, you ma