Conflict Avoidance Can Be Hazardous To Your Mental Health
Fighting in a relationship can be exhausting. Who really wants to do it? Isn’t it much nicer to have peace?
A Therapeutic Space for Individuals, Couples, and Families
Fighting in a relationship can be exhausting. Who really wants to do it? Isn’t it much nicer to have peace?
Curiously, one of the commonest causes of chronic marital dissatisfaction is the spouses’ tendency to be over-cautious with their partner. They have fights or disagreements, but don’t go far enough. So the patterns that can make a marriage feel dead stay stuck. Here’s a way to change that.
All marriages have divorce built into them. Often, though, we end up re-marrying the same person. This is a powerful–and painful –process necessary for growth, both as a couple and as individuals. In this post, Dave talks about some of the dynamics in marriage that help us understand this universal phase in the life of a couple.
Therapist Avi Klein wrote about the shame many men feel about their emotions, particularly feelings that expose a sense of vulnerability. We see men like that often in therapy with couples. Here’s a case of how one man allowed himself to be un-masked, and how it transformed the couple’s relationship.
In his thoughtful Op-Ed from The New York Times, psychotherapist Avi Klein reflects on the men who come to him
Sexual problems in a relationship, including erectile dysfunction, typically reflect a more subtle dysfunction in the underlying dynamic of the couple. Helping the guy to become less cautious with his wife can be a powerful libido-stimulator
Difficult Husbands seem to come in two brands: The Overly-Cautious Guy and the Know-It-All. These guys often look good on the surface, but they can spell trouble in a relationship. Here are some thoughts on what makes these guys tick, and how they inadvertently stand in the way of real intimacy.
Amy: In this Op-Ed from The New York Times, writer Jared Sexton beautifully captures what he calls the “toxic masculinity”
Amy: Part of my attraction to the video “What Nice Men Don’t Say to Nice Women” (see post from 9/5)
Dave and Raluca Jacono (Raluca is a wonderful therapist/ friend of DK): We both responded similarly to the Nice Man video. ( See