Category Archives for Relationships

Curiosity – How to Be the Best Marriage Partner _ Ryan Therapy

Curiosity: How to Be the Best Marriage Partner

Practice #2 of 6 Core Practices to Create a Healthy Marriage Discover why curious people make the best marriage partners. My ebook, Transform Your Relationship: 6 Core Practices to Create a Healthy Marriage, details essential practices you and your partner can work on to strengthen your connection and build a better relationship. The second practice I […]

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How to Move from Loneliness to True Intimacy (and Transform Your Relationship

How to Move from Loneliness to True Intimacy (and Transform Your Relationship)

Practice #1 of 6 Core Practices to Create a Healthy Marriage In my ebook, Transform Your Relationship: 6 Core Practices to Create a Healthy Marriage, I offer 6 core practices you can engage in with your partner to strengthen your connection and build intimacy. The first practice I discuss is Developing Self Awareness and Acceptance. Without […]

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severed-belonging-grief

Severed Belonging and Grief

I have been thinking a lot lately of two things: grief and severed belonging. These two things are inter-twined. Often, we experience grief when our place of belonging has been severed in some way. Our experience of grief is the vehicle through which we begin to heal the severed belonging. The Desire for Belonging All […]

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Couple embracing – How to Create a Healthy, Vibrant Relationship Without Couples Therapy

How to Create a Healthy, Vibrant Relationship Without Couples Therapy

Don’t you wish there was a class to take in high school or college that taught you how to be a good partner in your intimate relationship? That your parents talked more openly and taught you more about what constitutes healthy, sexual relationships? And that your parents modeled how to effectively resolve conflict by how […]

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grief-an-other- aspects- of- unconditional love

The Multi-Faceted Aspects of Unconditional Love

Last week my only daughter got married. And it was a joyous and love-filled experience for me. I was on cloud nine as I participated in the wedding day. A big part of my joy was in witnessing family, friends, and community express much love for my daughter and her husband. Hello Grief After she […]

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How to Bring Up Couples Therapy with Your Partner

How to Bring Up Couples Therapy with Your Partner (6 Dos and Don’ts)

Picture this: You and your partner are about to take off for a lovely romantic weekend away together. As you both are getting ready, a recurring issue surfaces between you. Before you know it, you both are arguing, angry, hurt, and feeling misunderstood. You find yourself having second thoughts about your “lovely romantic weekend”. Silence […]

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Men of Integrity- How to Create Lives of Acceptance, Love, and Peace

Men of Integrity: How to Create Lives of Acceptance, Love, and Peace

Photo courtesy of 123RF.  altanaka/123RF Men Of Integrity I am married to a good man. Together we raised four boys who have become good men. My daughter is about to marry a good man. And by “good”, I mean men of integrity; men who respect others and who are kind; men who strive to live […]

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Rain, Stillness and the Power of Connection

Spring Season Pacific Northwest Style I am sitting on the couch with a fire going in the wood burning stove and the steady fall of rain outside my windows. Welcome to the spring season in the Pacific Northwest. As the sky drops more and more rain, the world becomes greener and brighter. In the 24 […]

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is three or more better than two?

Three or More Better than Two? A Critique of Megyn Kelly’s approach to consensual non-monogamy

Can we just take a very important pause here to think consciously and intentionally about Megyn Kelly’s interviews about consensual non-monogamy on her March 1st show? Sexism Revealed As a couples therapist who often works with clients who are wrestling with the challenges of monogamy, and/or the challenges of consensual non-monogamy, I was so taken […]

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love stories

Love Stories

Two weeks ago, my daughter came into town to shop for her wedding dress. We carefully planned our day and the places we would shop. Our first stop was a beautiful vintage shop in Ballard.  http://trovevintage.blogspot.com/ The salesperson took us to their back room where their vintage wedding dresses were stored. As we entered, I […]

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