Most of my clients are either seeking to find a special love relationship or to improve the relationship that they are in. Relationship skills that are important for either seeking or improving a relationship are often learned in the family by watching our parents and how they treat each other. If we are fortunate enough to have parents in a strong marriage, then what we see and absorb will help us though we still must update some of it to work for our own generation. If our parents are single parents or are in unhappy relationships we either have a blank slate where the relationship modeling...

One of the difficulties with the current times is the amount of anxiety generated by both the news and our social conversations. We are in a period of upsetting changes and uncertainty.In everyday talk, it is easy to see and hear how fearful most people are about the changes in our government, our financial systems and our businesses. In the midst of these stresses it is difficult to stay calm and understand that getting upset and anxious is unlikely to be of any benefit to us or to the people we love. In fact, it is likely that without realizing it we will take our own stresses out on our families...

After a review of the research on women and mathematical and technical skills, I have affirmed my theory that women learn best in small same-sex groups that are cooperative and encouraging of verbal connection. Most women enjoy sharing and communicating personal material and enjoy analyzing and understanding emotions and relationships. The emotive-relationship area of skill development is one that girls have been trained for beginning in the early preschool years, based on extensive observation of same sex play groups over years. This is the way that women learn difficult or anxiety-arousing...

One of the most conflict-laden topics for couples is money. It takes a very mature couple to speak openly and calmly about their money differences. There is still a taboo about money discussions and to break this taboo often takes an emotional outburst….not the best beginning for a discussion. In addition money tends to bring up fear and anxiety so it is easy to believe that your partner is doing something that will threaten your survival if you and your partner have differences about handling money.

Many couples unconsciously divide roles in their partnership..one partner is designated...