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This article is by Michelle Wangler Joy, a therapist who has been employed at The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, CA since 2002.   Michelle provides both couples and individual counselling, teaches communication workshops and conducts training seminars in the US. You messed up.  You really blew it.  Your partner is giving you heck about it, […]

Feeling over-whelmed is something that happens to most of us. It usually creeps up on us, unawares, and then something happens that wakes us up to the feeling. Upon reflection, we start to realize that we are feeling over-whelmed by other things in our lives. There is much to be over-whelmed by: children, family, in-laws,

  By Lucy Wise-Chalker for The Newsroom,  August 13, 2015   The beauty of a monogamous marriage   Life’s short. Have an affair… If you have heard this slogan chances are you’ve heard of the multi-million dollar company, Ashley Madison. Just as there are websites for online shopping and gaming groups, AshleyMadison.com is the go-to site if

  Counsellor Connecting with Clients in Growing Practice Date: June 27 2015 by Josh Jennings Counsellor Lauren Sokolski says she remembers spending three years counselling one client for the depression, anxiety and panic attacks  the client had developed after a traumatic experience. Her role essentially involved providing the client with a safe place to explore emotions,

How many times have you heard your partner say: “That’s not what I meant?”  How many times have you said: “That’s not what I meant?” One thing is for sure: we’ve all been caught out making assumptions about what the other person means when we’re having a conversation or fight. When Past Experiences Get in

What Will Your Legacy Be?   by Steven Stosny, PhD, in Anger in the Age of Entitlement, April 9, 2014   Any therapist who has worked at all with senior citizens will tell you that a palpable regret, laced with grief, is the profoundest thing they see in their offices. According to research and clinical experience, people

This article was written by Peter Pearson who, together with his wife Ellyn Bader, founded The Couples Institute in 1984 in Menlo, California.  You and your partner formed a relationship likely for many reasons. One of the strongest might have been the desire for a deeper and ongoing connection with another human… a connection that

Are you someone who thinks that a good relationship means you have to agree with each other about everything? Many people believe that the sign of a good relationship is that they agree with each other about everything. Of course it is helpful if you are in agreement about your core values.   But it doesn’t

Over the years, I have worked extensively with couples as well as individuals around the issue of separation.  I have worked with couples and individuals who are in the process of deciding whether to separate, dealing with the decision one partner has made to end the relationship, and in the aftermath of a separation when

You know how we all receive emails forwarded by someone who received it from someone who received it from someone else…? Some of these emails I delete right away, or I give up halfway through reading them.  The article I am using for this newsletter is one of the email gems that I occasionally receive