There’s a lot of press lately about toxic positivity and, unless you’ve been in a coma for years, you have heard about the idea of body positivity.  What about the combination of the two?  Specifically, I am referring to my many depressed female clients who are unhappy with the weight …

I work with many couples who met in highschool or college.  (College is considered meeting young nowadays, as people marry later in life.) These couples have a set of unique challenges, which need to be acknowledged if the couple wants to deal productively with issues that emerge over the years.  …

I have repeatedly stated (like here and here) that I think the concept of “emotional labor” is currently too widely used, used for the wrong things, can be a way to complain about anything and everything, and therefore is basically meaningless as well as often harmful for marriages.  If your …

Reader Distance Learning Sucks writes, I feel like distance learning is going to permanently harm my relationship with my 8 year old son, who absolutely hates every single day of it. We fight constantly – either about school or his iPad time. Honestly, every single thing in our domestic lives …

Many men are so focused on their low libido partners that they fail to recognize that their own libidos will decline over time as well.  Yes, this happens more gradually than for women (who face discrete biological events like the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, nursing, and menopause), but it happens nonetheless.  …

There is a certain type of man that many women have encountered in the wild who loudly declaims that he hates drama.  Yet, for some reason unknown to him, dramatic women just keep finding him (and marrying him, and having kids with him, and so on).  Despite how laid back …

Reader Worried About Son writes, My ex and I split years ago when my son was about 3 years old. I am remarried (almost 3 years now) and we NEVER talk badly about his dad in front of him. I get along with my ex quite well most of the …

Reader Condescended To writes,   A few times with a girl I am dating I have said something wrong, perhaps out of confusion. Here is an example. We are actually in a long distance relationship, just an hour difference time-wise. She is an orthodontist and was waiting for a patient. …

In this post, I discuss why it’s normal to have a favorite child and as long as you don’t silk screen your preference onto a T shirt or otherwise make it known, you’re still a good parent.  But why does your child, or children, trigger you so much? Look at …

In my practice, I see couples at every stage of life. Many of these couples have babies and young children, which is a particularly stressful time in marriage.  Women feel particularly vulnerable, stressed, and burnt out.  Their body has changed and is depleted by childbirth, nursing, and physically demanding childcare, …

Everyone has heard of the term codependent, which describes couples who are enmeshed and have no boundaries.  One partner bases their life around keeping the other one happy, or at least appeased, and they do not have separate and healthy selves.  Here are some examples.  My post about The Man-Child …

I’ve written about important areas of compatibility for marriage, but my (second) husband suggested that I write specifically about how these points may or may not apply to second marriages.  At first I figured they were likely the same, but I have realized that there are in fact many distinctions.  …