Measuring Guilt Could Decrease Pain During Divorce
Going through a divorce is an emotionally exhausting experience. Individuals experience a diverse range of feelings before, during, and long after the process. Guilt is one of the emotions that divorcing couples struggle with. Research has shown that individuals who feel guilty have a difficult time letting go of their former spouse and often have problems developing new intimate relationships after the divorce. Overall, people who feel guilt from the divorce are less satisfied with their postdivorce lives than those who feel... Read More
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One of the most difficult times in our lives is when we choose or are faced with changing some of the most basic aspects of how we live. Where we live, who we live with, what our children experience, how much financial security we have, or what kind of work we do are all potentially affected when we end a relationship.
One of the decisions partners are faced with if that time arrives is what model of divorce to choose. You can do it yourself, otherwise known as a kitchen table divorce, go to a mediator, hire a court-based attorney, or you can decide to have a collaborative divorce. In a collaborative... 
Perfectionism and depression have been shown to be closely related, with perfectionism being a predictor of depressive symptoms. In a 
In sex therapy and couples therapy, the importance of full disclosure is a very important one. Many people come to therapy with the notion that their problem is isolated from the rest of their lives, and so they sometimes omit the most important pieces of information. Even the most thorough of intake sessions by the most seasoned and discerning therapists cannot weather the fact that clients often hold back very important information during treatment.
I see this in sex therapy and couples therapy quite often. People will like to leave out very important details, such as their profession and/or... 
My article of December 2011 specified that not looking at your partner in the face is a relationship mistake that is easily fixed. However, one blogger asked: “Why should I look my partner in the eye when we talk if I can recite back to her what she said? What difference does it make where I am looking?” That is a logical question but oversimplifies relationships. The answer is: “It depends on the situation and the type of conversation.”
Here are some examples of different kinds of conversations that occur between domestic partners.
• An exchange of information about household... 
HIV is spreading five times faster in Latina women than nonminority women in the United States. Latinos represent nearly 15% of the total American population, and that percentage increases each year. Because of the cultural values that Latina women hold, they are at a much higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than other American women. Latina 
I have a brand new definition of controlling behavior: It takes away civil liberties.
Let’s take an example. Suppose a couple is arguing and the husband blocks the doorway. Do you think he violated the Constitution? Well, let’s say a guy decides to rob someone coming out of a building and blocks his exit. What then? Do you see that it’s the same thing? In America, the first man’s wife should be able to leave if she wants, regardless of whether he wants to finish the discussion.
I once worked with a couple, Lizbet and Emilio. Emilio was a big, powerful man, a tough-looking guy who... 
Family members, and parents in particular, are supposed to be role models for their kids. And they are, according to a new study led by Sherry Hamby of the Department of Psychology at Sewanee, the University of the South in Tennessee. In her recent study, Hamby found that two out of every three adolescents who experience 
Couples seek therapy to achieve better 
What Christmas gives to the family, Valentine’s Day offers to partners; a chance to revel in our romantic ideal versions of relationship. Both holidays are fraught with intense expectation and grave peril.
Thoughtfully matching all our feelings about our partner with a single, intensely meaningful gift is an impossible task. Even as we try to understand our partner's predicament, we can be left nursing an overriding sense of disappointment. How have you chosen to punish your partner for his or her fallible gift giving?
Whether or not your Valentine’s Day hopes have been gratified or crushed... 
After 5 years of sobriety, in 1985, I began to notice a pattern in my sexual relationships: Even if I really liked someone, I couldn’t go more than 3 months before my attraction to them fizzled. I would then find some reason to end the relationship, although I never really understood why, and it made me feel bad. Thankfully, while I was leading a weekend retreat on Spirituality in Recovery, one participant pressed for bringing the subject of sex into the process.
Although I was unprepared, it gave me the opportunity to address the issue, and I shared my struggles with the group. When I asked... 
Sometimes people wonder how they will find true love. Partly you have to be ready with open eyes and hearts to see it and act on it when it appears. Then you need to hang out together and make sure it’s really love and not just a flash in the pan. Live your love for awhile, get confident, but don’t take forever before you make it permanent. Like all things, love can spoil or get stale if it doesn’t develop into the full catastrophe of making a life together—picking up socks or cereal in the supermarket, deciding where to go on vacation, or live, or how to spend your money. Whose money?... 
This article is the second in a two-part series on Pragmatic/Experiential Therapy for couples.
Phase II: Developing New Habits for the Respectful Negotiation of Differences
In the second phase of therapy with Mary and Fred, attention shifted from the past to the present. I assisted Fred in developing internal habits that enabled him to avoid hitting the panic button when Mary became critical, dismissive, closed-minded, or inflexible, and I helped Mary develop the ability to check her tendency to blindly accept the validity of her knee-jerk interpretations of Fred’s actions. The process for... 
Even though many women become sexually active as young adults, it may be many years before they experience their first orgasm. And a recent study by researchers Galinsky and Sonenstein (G&S) confirms that this phenomenon is not unusual; according to their study, men are reaching orgasm twice as often as women.
Ninety percent of the men in the study of 3,237 people aged 19 to 25 experienced orgasm “most or all of the time.” But less than half of the young women experienced orgasm during sexual relations. As I looked at the results of this study, I wondered what type of “sexual... 
