While being in a happy and stable relationship with someone you love and or adore can be like living a dream, being a partner is not the only path to happiness. In fact, when you’re able to spend time alone, with yourself, magic happens. A kind of magic that allows you to be the best [read more]
Live the Life You Deserve! A Guide to Acknowledging and Processing Fear
Fear is something that can have devastating effects on our mental, physical, social, and emotional well-being. It has the ability to weaken our immune system, and chronic fear could lead to cardiovascular problems, gastrointestinal issues, and other harmful ailments. Yet despite these terrible consequences of fear, it’s important for us to remember that everyone has, [read more]
No is Not a Bad Word: How to Say No to a Second Date
When my client Amy met Justin through an online dating site, it was a happy moment. He appeared to have everything Amy was looking for in a relationship, and prior to their first meeting, she was very optimistic and excited. After a few preliminary emails, they met face to face for coffee and a short [read more]
Part One of a Great Relationship – Emotional Intimacy
The key to any successful relationship is genuine attachment. Obviously you have a different relationship with a housemate or friend than you do with your lover. No matter how close a friend a housemate is, the attachment of a lover is bound to be deeper. It is based on full understanding which leads to a [read more]
What to Do Once You Know What You Know—Staying Too Long in a Relationship
Brita knew. But she didn’t. She woke up most days with a heaviness in her chest. A sense of unease, guilt, and hopelessness. How long had she had this feeling? Years. She was caught in the trap of staying too long in a bad relationship. Perry was exhausted all the time. He worried that his [read more]
Step Out of Fear and Into Your Power
The eloquent wisdom of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” is so profound and far-reaching that they became watchwords for an entire nation, and have, in less than a century, become so familiar that some might mistake them for cliché. But in fact they are as true [read more]
How to Ditch Emotional Baggage Once and For All Part I
If there were a lot of ugly, heavy stuff in a giant suitcase and it was useless to you in every way, would you schlep that suitcase everywhere you went? In the shower, to bed, through the mall, on your after-dinner walk? The answer: no. Not only would doing so be counter to your best [read more]
Hostage or Free? Codependency Revisited
Codependency has gotten some press in recent years. Which is a very good thing because it drags into the light of day a dangerous and fairly common relationship pattern that can hold people hostage for years. If ignored, codependency can do grave damage. I worry that people sometimes hear “codependent” and brush it off— yeah, [read more]