Saying No (Kindly) And Then Letting Go
Is it challenging for you to say no without feeling bad, anxious, and uncomfortable? If so, you may be taking unhealthy responsibility for others. Doing so exhausts you mentally, physically,…
Relationships & Love
Improving the Odds for Successful Second Marriages
Divorce rates have long been overstated, and that for more educated couples who are over 25 when they marry, the rate of divorce is probably only about 30 percent. While…
7 Mistaken Assumptions Angry People Make
“I guess I have an anger problem. I lose my temper pretty quick. But it’s not like my wife doesn’t do things to make me mad.” Richard has reluctantly come…
The Care and Maintenance of Friendship
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson The teen I was talking with yesterday was perplexed. “How come I can’t keep friends?”…
Is Parenting Drowning Your Marriage? 6 Tips to Help Reconnect with Your Partner
It’s a too-familiar story. James and Cindy have come in for couples counseling because they worry they have grown apart. With three children under the age of 12, they want…
Picking up the Pieces After the Betrayal of Cheating
It must be cellular: Men and women automatically feel humiliated when their partner cheats, even though they themselves have done nothing to be ashamed of. Too often, people feel embarrassed…
7 Persistent Myths About Marriage
Myths about marriage abound. Some myths come from pop culture. For instance, a persistent myth is that your relationship should come easy when you’re with “the one,” said Jazmin Moral,…
5 New Mom Myths
The letters keep coming to our advice column on PsychCentral. New moms wonder if there is something wrong with them if they aren’t over the moon about their little one…
5 Benefits of Group Therapy
For many people “group therapy can be more powerful and mutative than individual therapy,” according to Judye Hess, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist who has a private practice with couples, families…
Relationship OCD and the Doors of Uncertainty
When Adam was about 9 years old, he began to experience contamination obsessive-compulsive disorder. At 14, his fears about possibly getting sick subsided, but he began questioning his religious and…
The Poison P’s: How Bitterly Divorced Parents Put Kids in the Middle of Their Fight
When a divorce has been amicable or parents can agree to get along for the sake of the children, the awkwardness that is inevitable when kids live in two homes…
Stop Toxic Fighting with Your Ex
Tony and May were at each other within five minutes of sitting down in my office. Although divorced for four years, they are still seething. “He never shows up on…
My Bipolar Medications & The DUI
I thought I was an old-fashioned kind of girl when I first got married. I thought I wanted to be the one to take care of my man. I wanted…
Narcissistic Relationships
Since writing Codependency for Dummies, countless people have contacted me about their unhappiness and difficulties in dealing with a difficult loved one — frequently a narcissistic partner or parent who…
Are Our Hearts Hardwired to Heal Our Heads?
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process”- Vincent Van Gogh We are accustomed to thinking of our brains as…
