Decoding Desire

A common challenge that many couples face is understanding their individual styles of desire for physical intimacy in their marriages. Differing types of desire often create confusion and conflict. However, there is hope to have a healthy understanding of personal desire for intimacy that can start conversations to promote mutual understanding. Individual desire for sexual…

Self-care for the Holidays

Self-care isn’t always easy, no matter what time of year it is. But this time of year can oftenbring additional challenges that make maintaining routines and practices extra difficult. Maybeyou’re figuring out how to fit multiple holiday obligations into a schedule already loaded withresponsibilities. Maybe you’re a student approaching the end of the semester with…

New Cycle for a New Year: Watch Your T.E.M.P.O.

Emotional cycles are the interactive elements in our relationships with family members, friends, and co-workers. Negative cycles start when we become triggered by a someone’s troubling tone of voice, facial expression, or remarks. Immediately, we will feel an emotion that often prompts us to get angry or anxious. We may feel a bodily sensation due…

Gratitude: Motivation & Practice

Hope for Humility & The Good Life As we gear up for a season with seemingly endless opportunities to receive gifts, I contend that one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is developing a more robust practice of gratitude. Even though we like to believe that we do things altruistically for others most…

I See You, I Hear You

Children want to be seen and heard.  They long for connection with their parent or caretaker. They want to know they are important, loved, and valued.  What does it mean to “be seen and heard”?  It means to be known and for someone to know you and take interest in and validate the things that…

Wordle, Walks, and Ways to Connect with Your Teen

When I was a teenager, I sat down to breakfast each morning and waited for my dad to pass me the sports page. The 20 minutes we spent talking headlines, him in his suit, me in my flannels and Timberland boots – it was the 90s – was critical to our relationship. It was just…

All or Nothing

Happy New Year! In the 2006 cinematic masterpiece, “Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby,” the main character is a race car driver whose thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors all seem to flow out of a statement his father made to him when he was a young boy. “If you ain’t first, you’re last,” yells…