The original Gottman Love Lab first opened in 1986 at the University of Washington. The new Love Lab recently opened, …
Love Lab Goes Live: An Interview with Carrie Cole, Gottman Director of Research Continue
What the Research Shows Us The research is pretty clear, there are innate needs that we are hardwired for – …
One of the Most Important and Overlooked Relationship Builders Continue
“Rick” and “Sandy” came into the office with smiles and in good humor. I checked with them asking how things have …
My wife and I had occasion to meet a new friend. Bud is in his eighties, has been married over 50 years, strong as a horse, sharp as a tack, and funny as all get out. Bud is a soft spoken man, exuding kindness, and a sort of wisdom that draws you in. He recalled the following story, sharing with Cindy and me that recently his neighbor Jim, was convinced that Bud was having marital problems.
Every family creates legacies. There are different kinds of legacies; some we strive to maintain, others we struggle with. If we think about some of these legacies long enough we may come to see some as destructive, undermining our relationship: unnoticed detours to closeness and intimacy.
Where is our relationship at? How can I forgive my partner for what has happened? How can we go forward when my partner keeps talking about the past? Do we have a future? These are questions many couples struggle with in the counseling room, sorting through the mixture of ambivalent and often contradictory feelings about the relationship.
One of the biggest complaints I would hear hear in the counseling room related to couples not feeling close, of having lost …
Some years ago I was in a session with a couple where they were taking stock of their relationship, discussing how each saw things. They shared with me how nice it was to focus on the positive in their relationship, not just talking about what wasn’t working. Things weren’t perfect, but noticing what was going right helped to cope with what wasn’t. That got me to think about the question of how couples measure their relationships. Lets listen to Mary Ann and David.
Pete’s voice is rising as he directs the latest tirade at Susan, “You want me to pick up your mother from the airport? It is at least 45 minutes from the airport to our house…alone…with her”. Susan reacts immediately, “Pete, all you have to do is turn on talk radio, she loves that kind of stuff.
