If you’re worried about your relationship, you may start overanalyzing everything your partner does or doesn’t do. Constantly focusing on your relationship and seeing it as something broken can consume your thoughts and become overwhelming. When you begin to compare your partner to your friend’s partner or complain to your partner about their inadequate areas, resentment builds up. Marriage experts warn against these behaviors because they decrease communication and increase

When couples lose desire or interest in their partner, they often blame the problem on less action in the bedroom. That may be part of the problem, but the issue is usually more complex. Sex is one small part of five types of intimacy. When couples decide to share their life, they share all five types of intimacy and this makes their physical attraction stronger. Unfortunately, as couples get busier with children, household chores, financial concerns, and careers they begin t

We all feel it – whether it’s caused by work pressure, financial strain, raising the kids, or the aftermath of Harvey. It feels like there’s not enough time from morning to night. When (or if) you get a free moment, rarely are you alone. Many couples feel guilty for taking precious time away from their children to relax and enjoy each other. A recent article from the Journal of Marriage and Family described a study by University of Minnesota researchers, who studied 47,000 co

Marriage is tough and commitment is not biologically natural, which is one reason when you get married you must commit to monogamy. This is my theory, and although there are many theories in marital therapy, the one that works the best is the one that works for the couple. I find it interesting that humans never change although technology is changing at a rate so fast few of us can keep up. One of the changes is a slew of apps and websites to cheat. Couples using these apps a

A frequent question I hear is, “Should I divorce?” How do you know when your marriage is over? It’s a difficult question and one no one can answer for you. For one couple, a cheating spouse may be the final reason. For another couple, cheating may be worked through, but the in-laws may be the reason for divorce. I usually advise couples to wait and put every ounce of energy they can into salvaging the marriage. I also ask them to think about issues: How will your children far

The loneliest feeling does not come from being single. It is being married or living with someone, but feeling alone. This happens when one of the partners checks out or leaves the relationship emotionally but eats there, does their laundry there and sleeps there. For all other purposes though, you are without a partner. This happens to couples who live together as well as couples who date and marry. That means, many couples live with someone, but are alone. Many times a cris

When talking to your friends about the key to a successful marriage, you may leave the conversation feeling overwhelmed and stressed, more convinced it’s sex, time spent or financial security that holds happy couples together. These issues are important and the couples themselves determine their importance, but the key to couples’ happiness may be something else. In fact, continued and new research is beginning to get more clear about what is and isn’t as important to martial

When couples come for marital therapy there is a sense of urgency and despair. Many of them have talked about ending the marriage, and a few of them are using marital therapy as a last-ditch effort to save their marriage. A common question that is asked within the first half hour of meeting with them is, “How do we know when it is over?” This is a tough question, because anyone who has been married for some time and hit unexpected problems in their marriage has at least fanta

New Year’s brings out the optimist in all of us. We write a list of things we’re going to do differently to become a better version of ourselves. Whether it’s your weight, your work habits, or your parenting, everyone has things to work on. Improving your relationship may not be at the top of your list, but it should be. Every relationship needs to be nurtured for it to improve. The majority of couples linger in relationships they’re not satisfied with because they don’t thin

You may have lived together for years hoping to be successful with marriage. In a recent best seller titled, Helen Chen’s Love Seminar, the author reveals that 85 percent of couples that date for a long time hoping to avoid making the wrong choice end up breaking up. The problem these couples face is their inability to fully commit to one another. You may think the longer you date, the more secure your choice of partners, but this isn’t reality. People change, and it’s not th