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Denise O’Doherty

Denise O’Doherty

Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Drug and Alcohol Counselor, Registered Nurse

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Home » couples counseling » Page 2

couples counseling

April 5, 2016 | BY Denise O'Doherty

Resentments in Relationships

Resentments are the blocks that hold us back from loving ourselves and others. Resentments do not punish the other person, they punish us. They become barriers to feeling good and enjoying life. Resentments-in-Relationships-1They prevent us from being in harmony with the world. Resentments are hardened chunks of anger. They loosen up and dissolve with forgiveness and letting go.

Letting go of resentments does not mean we allow the other person to do anything to us that he or she wants. It means we accept what happened in the past, and we set boundaries for the future. We can let go of resentments and still have boundaries.

Try to see the good in the person, or the good that ultimately evolved from whatever incident you feel resentful about. Try to see your part. Get clarity on what your boundaries are and be willing to speak up and state your boundaries with others. (teach people how to treat you). Then put the incident to rest.

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, premarital counseling, relationship counseling
March 1, 2016 | BY Denise O'Doherty

Your Sexual Withholding Is Tearing Us Apart

“You wonder why I’m distant, angry, and hurt. You wonder why I’m not affectionate – just think about it. How would you feel if you Sexual-Withholding-1reached out to me for sex and I turned my back, pushed you away, or made lame excuses to avoid any romantic or sexual time together? How about if I went day after day ignoring your sexual needs?

It’s hard for me to feel like helping you or supporting you when you’re so insensitive. Problem is, it takes two of us to be sexual but only one person (you!) to say no. You have the power to stop our sex life and you have used that power at the risk of our happiness.

You must not feel what I feel when we go without sex. I can’t help but believe if you knew how physically, emotionally, and psychologically uncomfortable it is for me, that you would feel guilty about your resistance. Or maybe you just don’t care; maybe you don’t care about sex and don’t care about me. Whatever the reason, I’m not happy about it and you should understand why I’m upset.”

The Purpose of Sexual Withholding

People withhold sex for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it’s simply a difference in sexual desire: one partner wants sex twice a week and the other prefers twice a month. (The two most common frequency preferences among couples)

Some partners don’t enjoy the same sexual activities and therefore resist any sexual contact at all. They lack effective communication skills as well as suggestions for sexual techniques that could lead to mutual enjoyment.

Some people use lack of sex as a way to “punish” their partner or get their partners attention when they feel their partner is not listening to Sexual-Withholding-2them anymore.

A significant number of couples simply don’t make time for sex. The lead busy lives with little relaxation or quiet moments together.

Some partners simply aren’t interested in sex and feel justified in ignoring their partner’s needs- although this is far rarer than you might believe. Given the right situation almost everyone enjoys sex.

If the partner who initiates sex more often exhibits offensive behavior, such as acting in an angry or defensive manner, this may serve as a turn-off and justification for the other partner to withhold sexual contact. Without effective communication skills a cold war may ensue.

Easily, the most common reason partners withhold sex is lack of information related to healthy, fun, sexual practices. They don’t know what turns them on and therefore cannot provide their partners with constructive information that would lead to mutual satisfaction. They may never have come close to experiencing their own sexual potential.

The Disconnect from Sexual Withholding

Early in a relationship, with novelty fueling the libido, sexual desire and receptivity run high for most couples. Over the course of time normal differences evolve, requiring skills and knowledge to navigate. Unfortunately, not all individuals or couples are equipped to manage these sexual changes.

When reality falls short of expectations, disappointment sets in. In the beginning of a relationship it appears as if you both have the same desires, similar interests in sex, and are tuned in to one another’s needs in an almost perfect manner. Managing your intimate love life takes little or no effort at all. This romantic love stage fosters the belief that it will always be this way. When normal differences emerge, disenchantment follows. How you manage this common post-rapture stage of love will determine how connected or disconnected you are as a couple.

Disconnection occurs when curiosity, caring, compassion, and open communication are replaced with criticism, control, blame, bullying, defensiveness, defiance, withdrawal, withholding, anger, or avoidance.

Transforming Sexual Withholding

Most people live a lifetime and never experience the full pleasure of their sexual potential – or the potential of the partnership. Unaware of sexual styles as well as the differing partnership. Unaware of sexual styles as well as the differing pathways to arousal, they stay stuck in old patterns and parochial views. Transformation requires a new perspective beginning with commitment to creating a passionate relationship together.

Sexual withholding can be a little problem or a big problem, and transformation must be congruent with the level of severity. If you are just out of practice and need to get back on track, reignite your sex life with these words of wisdom:

  • Set mutual established sensual/sexual goals for your relationship.
  • Start with small, doable goals.
  • Make time for sex. Block off private, uninterrupted periods and make these commitments sacred.
  • Become an expert in your own sexual arousal and desire.
  • Establish a safe way of talking about sex.
  • Accept and honor differences between the two of you.
  • Understand that half the population doesn’t feel like having sex until they are already having sex.

Most couples agree that sex is important to the care and feeding of a relationship, but they get stuck around the “will wee or won’t we have sex” stage. Take away the tension, reflect on what you admire in your partner and keep an open mind. Replace withholding with a Sexual-Withholding-3commitment to be available as a sexual/ sensual/ intimate partner whenever either of you has the desire.

There are many, many ways to be sexual. From the quickie to the weekend sex fest, couples run the gamut when it comes to sensual pleasure. Get in the habit of expanding your sexual repertoire in terms of time, attention, and technique.

If the issues between the two of you are more complicated than just getting off track, then you might need to address the unresolved issues that are contaminating your sex life:

  • Set aside time to talk and listen in a calm, respectful manner.
  • Practice replacing criticism with asking specifically for what you want.
  • Anytime your partner comes close to pleasing you, acknowledge the act with a smile, touch, or “Thank you!”
  • Consult a third party – Read a related book such as “Hot Monogamy” or “You Can Make It Happen” as a study guide for your relationship.

If sex has become a deal-breaker, or if the two of you are growing further apart, consult a specialist ASAP. If there is underlying contempt, or the feeling that there is “too much water under the bridge” or that you are no longer feeling like you are understood by your partner or compatible for reasons outside sex, then the relationship needs help. There is no substitute for professional support when it comes to sexual issues that threaten your relationship. Counseling doesn’t have to go on forever or cost a fortune. Be sure to work with a therapist who has been trained in relationship counseling as well as sexuality. There’s not a better way to invest in your home improvement!

“Your’re Tearing Us Apart”
    by Pat Love, Eva Berlander, and Kathleen McFadden

 

 

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, premarital counseling, relationship counseling
February 2, 2016 | BY Denise O'Doherty

Your Affair is Tearing Us Apart

“Just the thought of you being with someone else literally makes me feel sick. I can’t believe you would do this to me. I can’t believe you would do this to us! After all we have gone through and after all we have built together, I can’t believe you would throw it all away without a thought or concern for anyone but yourself. What were you thinking? Did you even think of how I would feel? Did you even care? Does this Your Affair is Tearing Us Apartstranger mean more to you than your own family? You have ruined all our lives just to follow your feelings and please yourself.

So is this about sex? Are you not attracted to me anymore? Did you ever find me attractive? Am I such a miserable failure? It feels like my heart is being torn out of my body. Why are you doing this to me?

I am angry but I am also deeply sad. I’m grieving the loss of a dream. I guess it was a dream because I thought we had a strong loving relationship while all along you were giving your love and attention secretly to someone else.

How could you look at me and act like nothing was happening while knowing you were lying to my face? Some part of me feels like a big fool- for loving you, believing you, and trusting you. Well, you’ve broken that trust, and I don’t know if I can ever get that back again.”

The Purpose Behind Affairs

People have affairs for a variety of reasons, but the ones I hear in therapy are often, “I felt someone paid attention and was interested in me”, “It’s fun”, “I felt important to someone”, “It feels good”. Although most of us enjoy the security, companionship and comfort of a committed, monogamous relationship, we also might desire the passion and intensity that comes from a new relationship, especially a secret one.

People have affairs because they consider it nobody else’s business (not even their partners’). This affair might be about sex only; it could be an emotional affair they don’t consider infidelity; it might add spice to their committed relationship; it might be a lifelong personal style and they have no interest in changing; it could be perceived as a reward for working hard and fulfilling responsibilities. An affair can also be payback or a passive-aggressive act against the committed partner.

Your Affair is Tearing Us ApartMost people, however, don’t decide- they slide into an affair. Conscious thought doesn’t enter into the picture. An innocent acquaintance gradually becomes more intimate until it’s the primary source of pleasure. An innocent acquaintance gradually becomes more intimate until it’s the primary source of pleasure. The affair begins with two people sharing information or an activity; they bond around personal contact and mutual experiences. With little or no conscious thought, they cross the line into infatuation. Once the affair relationship start to provide a sensual or sexual high, then it’s “game over.” You are now under the influence of infatuation, one of the strongest forces found in nature. Infatuation sets up an insatiable craving for more contact that’s practically impossible to resist.

It’s easy to be judgmental about affairs. But being attracted to another person is normal. For some, monogamy is compatible and comfortable. For others, monogamy takes a more conscious effort.

An important clarification regarding affairs- contrary to popular belief- is that affairs can and do happen in good relationships. You can be in a happily committed relationship and still meet someone at work with whom you have chemistry. If you follow the chemistry, an affair will follow.

The Disconnect from Affairs

Infidelity threatens the connection between two people in many ways. Affairs break trust, lack of trust creates anxiety, and managing anxiety is exhausting. Affair-repair takes a lot of energy.Your-Affair-is-Tearing-Us-Apart-4

Affairs change your image of your partner. Whether you had the affair or you’re reeling from your partner’s affair, the experience will show you another side of one another’s personality. When we are in the throes of fear or shame, none of us function at our best.

Affairs are traumatic. Trauma is any real or perceived threat to survival. When you are in a committed love relationship your partner becomes an attachment figure. This means, your partner’s attention determines your feeling of security and survival. So if your partner chooses someone else over you, it feels like you are going to die. Affairs evoke fear of abandonment. Even though affairs most often are the result of your partner’s unilateral, personal decision, it’s hard not to take it as a personal affront. When you’re reeling in the hurt it’s hard to reach the love that once connected you.

The unfaithful partner can feel shame because:

  • I broke my promise of fidelity. I lied and cheated.
  • I gave away what I promised to you.
  • I went against my core values. I disappointed the people I love.

The betrayed partner can feel shame because:

  • I told other people what you did to punish you.
  • Like a fool, I trusted you.
  • I took you back after all the hurt, the betrayal, and everything you’ve done.
  • I’ll put up with anything, so what does that say about me?

Shame is a disabling feeling that can make you want to hide, shut down, and disconnect from the pain as well as the partner. Pain makes us defend and protect ourselves. You don’t feel connected when you’re busy defending.

Transforming Affairs

Affairs can bring out the best and worst of times when trying to repair your relationship. The best of times can include realizing how important you are to one another, having fun together, being vulnerable and compassionate, becoming better communicators, making new commitments, being affectionate and having great sex.

Your Affair is Tearing Us Apart
Your Affair is Tearing Us Apart

Affairs can also bring out the worst of times. If you had the affair you may feel like

you never loved your committed partner. You may grieve the loss of the affair partner and resent your committed partner for taking that away. You might believer you will never be as happy as you were with the affair partner. You might even believe you have lost the love of your life.

If you are the betrayed partner, you may feel like you’re riding an emotional roller coaster. You may feel like your whole life has been a lie and the rug was pulled out from under you. You may have feelings of hatred and revenge, even violence, something you never thought you could feel. You may become obsessed about micromanaging your partner’s behavior and want to monitor every hour of the day. You may hack a phone or computer, plant a GPS device, or hire a private detective. You may want to stay one minute and run away forever in the next. It may feel like temporary insanity to either of you or both. The good news is, it’s not only possible to survive but to thrive in a relationship after an affair. Here are some basic steps to facilitate the process:

Step One – Zero Contact:

Generally, recovery and repair can’t begin until there is zero contact with the affair partner. That means no face-to-face visits, phone calls, emails, texts, or internet contact – nothing. That also means no fantasizing, re-reading communications, listening to your “special music,” or revisiting the love scenes. This can be especially difficult when the affair involves someone from work.

Step Two – Informed Consent:

Most individuals need some relevant information and facts about the betrayal including, but not limited to, names, places, time spent together, money spent on affair/ affair partner, activities, and details. The partner who was betrayed has the right to the information to make an informed decision about moving forward. It’s difficult to rebuild a relationship without a foundation of honesty. Giving relevant information is also an indication that the unfaithful partner is protecting the committed partner not the affair partner. In couples therapy, this is called a “disclosure” session.

Step Three – Remorse:

The partner who betrayed must understand and have compassion for the betrayed partner’s pain caused by the infidelity. This is a pivotal step. Without remorse, forgiveness is difficult, if not impossible. Without remorse, further betrayal is probably. It’s not about just being sorry but being able to tell your spouse why you are sorry.

Step Four – Forgiveness:

This step is vital for the relationship to grow and prosper, and it is often a difficult process for the betrayed partner. It means to let go of anger, bitterness and being able to see good in yourself and your world. It does not mean to forget what happened, but to see it in a way that doesn’t make you toxic and sick.

Step Six – Create a New Contract:

This doesn’t mean you need a formal, legal document (although some couples do), but be sure you’re in agreement about what it means to be in a committed, monogamous relationship. Most couples commit to being lovers, best friends, confidants, playmates, financial partners, social partners, each other’s priority above everything else, and always on each other’s side.

Recommitment

Most couples get into relationships without discussing expectations and behaviors that are acceptable and unacceptable for the relationship. It’s important for both of you to be on the same page about your recommitment to one another. A therapist can be a good third person to help you create a safe space for this. Some couples even have a recommitment ceremony after a period of healing and forgiveness.

After the Affair

Once time has passed and healing has begun, it may be important to look at issues that were in play before the affair took place. Addressing unresolved issues, changing communication patterns, and revitalizing your sex life may be in order as you move forward together, but only well after you both have recovered from the betrayal.

The ultimate question for couples facing infidelity are the following. Your Affair is Tearing Us ApartThese can also be addressed in psychotherapy with a professional who is familiar with guiding you through to build trust, safety and a positive connection.

  • Is this a relationship that I want to nourish, cherish and value as a priority in my life?
  • What actions will you take in your relationship to be the best partner you can be?
  • What expectations will you have of yourself to be an excellent partner?
  • What action steps can I take to keep my relationship exciting, alive and meaningful.
  • What are your core values?
  • How can you live each day with authenticity and without regret?

Recovering from an affair can be well worth the hard work. Many couples will tell you even though they never would have chosen this path, their relationship became stronger and more rewarding through the journey.

Paraphrased from “You’re Tearing Us Apart – 20 Ways We Wreck Our Relationships and Strategies to Repair Them” – Pat Love, Eva Berlander, and Kathleen McFadden

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, premarital counseling, relationship counseling
October 27, 2015 | BY Denise O'Doherty

6 Marks of Healthy Sexuality

What are the marks of a healthy sexual relationship?

6-Marks-of-Healthy-Sexuality-1It’s not inappropriate to ask what is most pleasurable or most exciting for married couples, but meaningful lovemaking is so much more than creating greater sexual arousal and climaxes. In my view, “healthy” protects happy pleasure it doesn’t threaten it.

Some people find that after they get married that their spouse has some sexual hang-ups. At first, they thought the best thing to do was to “go along.” Going along never works; it just prolongs the inevitable crisis. Nursing an unhealthy inclination never makes things better; it just makes the way back a little longer and ultimately more difficult.

Seeking a healthy sexual relationship is a fair, good and wise pursuit.

These six marks aren’t exhaustive; I’m sure there are many more, but here’s a short, non-scientific test to see how you and your spouse are doing in regards to sexual intimacy.

  1. Sex is good when it’s relational.

Any sexual experience divorced from relational connecting isn’t healthy sex. Pornography, voyeurism, predatory touching, any form of paying for sex, exhibitionism, group sex, anonymous sex, or objectifying marital sex all have the same common denominator: sex divorced from relational connecting. Most forms of sexual deviancy include a separation between sex and emotional connection.

Physical intimacy draws couples closer together. After the intimacy is over they smile, hold on to a very pleasant shared memory, and their bond is deepened accordingly. Unhealthy sex further isolates an already damaged person. They “wake up” from the sexual experience, feel increased shame (making him/her a little less capable of authentic intimacy) and want to hide what just happened from everyone instead of remember it fondly with a special someone.

Healthy sex says to each (willing) participant: “You matter. You are desired. You are cherished. I am not having sex with a body but making love to you as my special 3-dimensional (body, mind mixed with emotions, and spirit) spouse. I affirm you and want to please you.”

Be wary of any form of sexual excitement or fulfillment that is separate from appropriate relational connection. If it’s not drawing you closer together, it’s not healthy.

  1. Healthy sex supports a relationship rather than being the relationship.

Healthy sex serves a relationship; unhealthy sex becomes the relationship which is asking too much of sex. Sex should be an expression of what is, not a way to momentarily and artificially create what you hope to be true. Our culture tries to make sex the pathway to intimacy, rather than healthy sexuality flowing out of an expression of intimate connection.

By nature, sex can last only so long and be performed only so often and sexual chemistry eventually slows down. Sexual desire simply cannot sustain a lifelong marriage. But an intimate sacred marriage can sustain a tremendous lifelong sex life.

6-Marks-of-Healthy-Sexuality-2When sex becomes the relationship it’s like trying to support a fifty story hotel on a foundation made of toothpicks. You build a healthy sexual relationship by building a healthy marriage on all levels: emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and relationally. As Dr. Harry Schaumberg so ably puts it, “To be spiritually mature, you must be sexually mature; to be sexually mature, you must be spiritually mature. And I’d say that to be spiritually mature, and sexually mature, you need to be relationally mature. In other words, a mature marriage is a three legged stool of spiritual, relational, and sexual maturity.”

Dr. Mitch Whitman points out that the absence of healthy sexuality sometimes increases the aggrieved spouse’s focus on sex almost to an obsession, so that it becomes practically the only thing that matters to the frustrated spouse.

If one spouse says, “The rest of our relationship is so strong you shouldn’t need sex,” that’s tantamount to the other spouse saying, “Our sex life is so good you shouldn’t need anything besides sex.” In other words, we can fall off the rails on either side of the equation: asking sex to do too much, or not taking advantage of its power at all.

  1. Healthy sex confronts rather than perpetuates sexual brokenness

Many of us stumble into marriage as sexually broken people. We think marriage will cure our sexual brokenness, but problems re-arise when we want to express our sexual brokenness as part of our marriage. That’s like asking a doctor to serve your addiction instead of curing it.

Beware of coercive marital sex. Some couples will use their partner to serve a sexual addiction. Let’s swap partners. Some people use sex to 6-Marks-of-Healthy-Sexuality-3deaden their own pain—anesthetizing themselves—and thus put inordinate physical demands on their spouses. Those who insist on daily sex (I’m not talking about the honeymoon phase here) may be using their partners to fight back an addiction or an intimacy problem rather than cherishing and affirming their partners by giving them pleasure.

In our culture today, the most common silly notion (not even questioned by many) is that all desire must be legitimate, equally respected, tolerated, and even indulged. That’s foolish, ruinous, and not true in any other life experience. It’s possible to desire something that is harmful. You can eat yourself sick, you can spend your way to bankruptcy, and you can “sex” your way to disaster. So no, you are not obligated as a spouse to indulge every one of your spouse’s desires. Healthy sex is mutually affirming in all aspects: spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Dr. Douglas Rosenau stresses that a poor body image, sexual shame, repression of healthy sexuality, and sexual immaturity are also aspects of sexual brokenness. In other words, not wanting to do something that is holy can be every bit as much evidence of brokenness as does wanting to do something that is wrong.

One of the most common ways for anyone to let marriage perpetuate sexual brokenness is by being non-sexual. Instead of challenging deep-seated feelings that sex is “nasty,” some expect their partner to develop and share her aversion to sex rather than develop a mutually satisfying sexual relationship. If one allows past sexual abuse or faulty thinking to undercut or even annihilate sexual activity in marriage, one can perpetuate brokenness, not confront it. In such instances, one could talk to an experienced, professional counselor who has dealt with this issue—few people can just “get over this,” any more than they could give themselves a kidney transplant.

When the marital sexual relationship reveals an ongoing weakness that a change of mind simply cannot heal—whether it be desires for unhealthy activities or aversion toward healthy activities—it’s time to seek help.

  1. Healthy sexuality is about mutually shared pleasure; perverse sexuality is about numbing the pain with selfish indulgence.

In addition to producing offspring and renewing intimacy, sex can offer pleasurable moment for couples, helping them to cope with (and giving them a vacation from) mundane or difficult duties in life. It is also comforting, and naturally reduces anxiety. These are all wonderful byproducts of healthy sexuality. Sex is not meant, however, to be used like a drug.

Unhealthy sex seeks to numb pain rather than serve your partner with true pleasure. Instead of enhancing the present life of your spouse, unhealthy sex tries to escape your past life or selfishly use your mate’s body for personal and ultimately unfulfilling sexual gratification.

I was fascinated recently reading a classic book on sexual addiction (Don’t Call it Love by Patrick Carnes) that’s twenty years old. It describes (as almost pathological) the kind of activity that The Fifty Shades trilogy and movies have tried to de-stigmatize. Carnes warns against “the use of pain to escalate sexual excitement. How can extreme sadomasochistic games, be pleasurable? The answer is that often they are not. But the associated emotions of fear, risk, danger, and rage are very mood altering. We can make fun of people who are ‘into 6-Marks-of-Healthy-Sexuality-5pain’; media portrayal of ‘S and M’ roles often involves humorous exaggeration. Grim reality exists that we in our cultural denial attempt to avoid and deflect with humor. For many, the combination of pain and sex is as repugnant as violence.”

The agenda in this culture today, seems to be to tell us that we are missing out on something if we’re not practicing some of these habits. I emphasized the phrase “very mood altering” because that’s the marker of unhealthy sex–using it like a drug (as opposed to an expression of relationship). It’s not even pleasurable. It just puts us in a trance.  Healthy sex affirms lasting pleasure; its focus isn’t to feel less of something negative, but to experience more (and help our partner experience more) of something positive.

  1. Healthy sex is based in truth

Healthy Sex is about authenticity, reality, truth, being connected to a real person, and giving real pleasure. The world keeps promoting sex that is all about artificiality, deceit, and escaping from reality.

“Looking over your shoulder,” lying, afraid of being “caught,” not wanting anyone to find out—these are all markers of sex that is based on subterfuge and deception. No couple need be ashamed if others think they are being sexual. Nor do they have to pretend they are something or someone else in order to desire and please each other. I’m not suggesting that fantasy is wrong; just that the sexual experience should serve a real couple in a real relationship who know each other, value each other, and are truly present for each other.

To mentally imagine yourself making love to someone else while your spouse thinks you’re focused on them is one of the worst forms of fraud imaginable. As they give themselves to you, you are taking what’s offered to you and handing it over to another.

Healthy sex isn’t just about excitement or reaching a climax—it’s about the two of you relating, connecting, knowing, and authentically being there for each other. Of course, finding legitimate ways to enhance pleasure and serve each other is relationship-enhancing; planning something special, being creative, even searching for something “new” can be a generous act of love.

  1. Healthy sex affirms your sense of self

In a healthy sexual relationship, you feel that the sexual experience affirms who you are: as a spouse, as parents raising kids together (and protecting/serving their family), (sex should never feel as if it is asking you to compromise your faith but rather be an 6-Marks-of-Healthy-Sexuality-4expression of your faith), as a person who is cherished and loved. In unhealthy sexuality, the sexual experience leaves you feeling empty, alienated, almost like you’re role-playing or an object.

You may realize that, for any number of reasons, your sexual sense of self has become distorted. Maybe from a hook-up culture that promotes porn, a repressive upbringing, trying to medicate pain, or hoping sex can create a shortcut to intimate connection. If sex doesn’t affirm who you are, there’s a good chance you’re not being made love to; you’re likely being used. Perhaps you feel like you have to be someone you’re not to keep your spouse interested or from acting out inappropriately. That’s manipulative sex; that’s co-dependent sex, it’s not healthy sex.

Sex should affirm and reaffirm who you are, your sense of worth, your sense of being valued, and your sense of relationship.  A healthy sense of your sexual self will promote both a profound sexual intimacy and an amazing sacred relationship full of deep connecting moments.

 

This article has been edited from an original article written by Rev. Gary Thomas. Rev. Thomas is a Christian counselor. To read the original article go to http://www.garythomas.com/6-marks-of-healthy-sexuality/. You can also sign up for his website by going to http://www.garythomas.com/feed/

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, premarital counseling, relationship counseling
September 15, 2015 | BY Denise O'Doherty

One Single Question That Can Make Your Spouse Feel Closer To You

– by Gary Thomas, paraphrased by Denise O’Doherty

There’s an old rabbinical story about how a spot was chosen to build a temple. Two brothers worked a common field and a common mill. Each night they divided whatever grain they had produced and each took his portion home.

One brother was single and one was married with a large family. The single brother decided that his married brother, with all those kids, certainly needed more grain than he did, so at night he secretly crept over to his brother’s granary and gave him an extra portion. The married brother realized that his single brother didn’t have any children to care for him in his old age. Concerned about his brother’s future, he got up each night and secretly deposited some grain in his single brother’s granary.

One night they met halfway between the two granaries, and each brother realized what the other was doing. They embraced, and as the story goes, because they each came from a place of love, that is where the temple was built. It was deemed sacred because it was the place where human beings discovered in each other, love, kindness and understanding.

intimacy2Marriage can be that sacred place.

What makes this story so moving is that two individuals had greater empathy for the difficulties the other faced rather than their own difficulties. Selfish marriage is the opposite: each partner feels their own pain more intensely and are either unaware or calloused in regards to their spouse’s pain.

What if you asked your spouse this simple question: “What makes your life most difficult?” Or perhaps, to start things off, you could imagine what must be difficult about their life and then bring it up: “I bet it must be really difficult for you to….

As they respond, your sole aim is to truly understand the challenges your spouse faces on a regular basis. For the purpose of this exercise, don’t try to solve the problems. Avoid counseling your spouse as well. Certainly, do not try to convince them that whatever is bothering them shouldn’t—as if they are over-reacting or being unreasonable.

Just listen and try to understand.

This single question may sound too simple and too small to have any impact, but it can generate more feelings of intimacy than you might imagine making your spouse feel much closer to you.

Just try it, and you’ll see.

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, relationship counseling
April 21, 2015 | BY Denise O'Doherty

True Love

The most damaging instance of “identity theft” is when hate masquerades as love.

I see it all the time, particularly in dating relationships.

premarital counseling, couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, relationship counselingA young man “falls in love” with a woman, woos her until he has monopolized her social calendar and then weeks or months later, drops her. Once she has abandoned everything for him, he abandons her. But it was all done in the name of love. His feelings once told him it would never end, so he demanded absolute commitment and focus. But now that the feelings have changed, so apparently has his view of “love.”

A premarital couple the jackpot when the young man finally said, “Okay, now I get that loving her means I’m supposed to support her to be the best she can be”. What this means is being concerned about your partners well being (emotionally, physically, sexually and above all spiritually). The relationship comes after that.

Our primary aim in every relationship, including marriage and dating, is help each other grow and to bring out the best in each other.

If you start spending every extra moment together and the relationship doesn’t last, you’ve pulled this person from their friends and their life focus. When the relationship crashes, their life crashes and has to be completely rebuilt. Leaving someone in that condition is like mortgaging their house so you can gamble with their money to get rich. It’s reckless, it’s selfish it’s the opposite of love.

When a married woman uses sex to manipulate or humiliate her husband, that is not love. That’s taking something precious and using it as an evil weapon. When a married man considers it a betrayal if his wife has any other significant relationships that is also not love. He’s controlling her in the name of preserving some misguided sense of marital loyalty.

Love is always—always—doing what is best for the other person. Not what is best for you. Not what will make them like you or need you or want you. Love is kind, it is patient, it is strong enough to do what is right instead of giving way to the weakness of selfishness or feelings, it is self-sacrificing, it never rejoices in wrongdoing, it doesn’t insist on its own way.

Don’t be fooled by self-interest masquerading as love. Insist on love.

 

-Copied and revised from an article by Rev. Gary Thomas

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, premarital counseling, relationship counseling
March 23, 2015 | BY Denise O'Doherty

The Importance of being “All In” In Your Relationship

The following article was written by Gary Thomas from a Christian perspective regarding the importance of being “all in” a primary relationship. (A common topic in marriage and relationship therapy). The IMAGO model would support this perspective. Although he writes from a heterosexual perspective, this works for gay and lesbian relationships and other spiritual perspectives as well. See what you think……

“Bachelor Disaster” by Gary Thomas

gary-thomasIt was almost as painful as watching a man slowly bleed to death; instead, I was watching a marriage die before it had even begun.

The Bachelor wanted to be known as a good guy. He was in a ridiculous and silly situation (trying to artificially choose a wife while simultaneously dating 25) but even so, he couldn’t have made it worse.

When he was finally down to the final two women, the guy couldn’t make up his mind. He kept worrying about whether the one he was rejecting would be better for him than the one he was choosing. He feared he might be making a mistake, he actually called it “the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

Every syllable of those pathetic, self-absorbed sentences were caught on tape and were daggers to the joy of his future marriage (assuming the marriage actually happens). His “fiancé” said she decided not to watch the painful ordeal, but if the bachelor thinks she never will, or that she’ll never hear about it, he’s delusional. Besides, she already did hear about it. The host brought it up! And the future bride’s refusal to hear it firsthand testifies to the hurt already inflicted by a complete misunderstanding of love, marriage, and marital unity/intimacy.

Men, if you want a satisfying marriage, you have to be all-in focused on one woman. You have to prize her above all women. You have to make her believe there is no other woman you could possibly be drawn to in comparison.

You can’t cleave if you don’t first leave “Leave” doesn’t just mean your parents—it means every other human affection.  The best marriages are “all in.” They are built and sustained by the attitude, “I will offend everyone else, if I have to, in order to affirm, value, and cherish you.”

If you’re not ready to make that commitment to a woman, you’re not ready to be married. It is pitiful for any husband to let any woman besides his wife think that he’s “on the market” or may soon be.

To share something “special”—emotional or physical—with anyone other than your spouse is to subtract from your marriage. It’s to kill it with a thousand small cuts. It will slowly bleed your marriage to death.

Marriage is nurtured by its exclusivity and it is assaulted by the Bachelor’s disastrous mindset, whether you adopt that mindset as a single man or as a husband married for ten or twenty years.

Men, you can’t cleave if you don’t leave—everything, and everyone. True “cleaving”—a sense of oneness, a solid, impenetrable unity—is so fulfilling. Without it, you get all the responsibility and limitations of marriage without the soul fulfillment. That’s as frustrating a trade as you’ll ever make. You can only live with that for so long without wanting the “escape” of divorce.

All in, or not in. Those are really the only two choices a man should focus on when choosing a mate. If a woman thinks the man isn’t there, she’s being equally foolish tying her life to half of his heart and half of his mind.

Excerpt from GaryThomas.com

Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, relationship counseling
February 26, 2015 | BY Denise O'Doherty

Relationship Counseling: Increase Intimacy By Learning Your Love Language

Effective Communication - Communication is the key to maintaining a healthy relationship. Communicating with your significant other requires both listening and expressing your thoughts and desires.

Gary Chapmans’ book, The 5 Love Languages, suggests that there are 5 ways that we SHOW and RECEIVE love. His languages are: gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch. Chapman explains that it is important to learn the ways in which you like to show those that matter most that you love and appreciate them, as well as how you like to receive love from others.

Here are Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages:

Words of Affirmation

Hearing the words, “I Love You,” are important, but hearing the reasons on why someone loves you are just as important. Words of appreciation, encouraging works, and kind words are a powerful communication of love. Verbally communicating your love must be done with a humble heart, kindness, tenderness and sincerity.

Quality Time5love-languages2

Nothing says “I love you, like giving your beloved your undivided attention. A person who loves through quality time, or needs to be loved with quality time need that one on one time, with no TV, cell phone on vibrate, no outside influences, just one on one time. Quality time is not just being at the same place at the same time. It involved interaction and sharing the time together. Maintaining eye contact, no multi-tasking, and actively participating in the conversation are a must for the QT lover.

Gifting

Gifting should not be confused with materialism. Receiving gifts as a form of love focuses on the thoughtfulness and effort behind the gift, and vice versa for the gifter who shows love through gifting. The gifter is expressing that their sweetheart is cared for and prized for above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift. The one showing their love through gift giving often goes through a great deal of thought and planning in an effort to provide the perfect gift at the most appropriate time.

Acts of Service

Showing love through acts of service display the devotion that one has towards their object of affection. Attempting to ease their workload and make their life easier bring pleasure to the acts of service lover. Actions such as housework, cooking meals, laundry, yard work, running errands, dealing with finances are just a few examples of acts of service one might perform to show their love and devotion. These acts, no matter how big or small, require thought, planning and effort. For the loved one who likes to receive love through acts of service, they see them as a display of love and commitment.

Physical Touch

Don’t confuse this love language as just related to sex. Physical touch can be hugs, pats on the back, hand holding, caressing as you pass each other, and kissing when you leave or return to the home. These small acts of affection build excitement and display loving and caring. Love touches don’t take much time and the holding hands, kissing, hugging, touching each other when you leave the house and when you return may involve only a brief kiss, but speaks volumes.

The Importance To Learn Your Love Language

If we use this model of showing and receiving love, it is important to have a healthy relationship to understand two things:

  1. How you like to receive and show love
  2. How your significant other likes to receive and show love.

Knowing your bent for showing and receiving love, and fully understanding the way your significant other shows and receive love will bring a new level to your relationship. Understand that you may or may not match up with your mate. It may take work on both parts to understand these new concepts of showing and receiving each other’s affection.

How To Communicate Your Love LanguageGary Chapman's 5 Love Languages

In many relationships, the concept of love languages is foreign. Opening the lines of communication between you and your partner will allow you both to express your thoughts, observations and desires to each other without being criticized. The goal is to build a deeper and long lasting relationship while enjoying each other’s characteristics that you bring to the relationship.

Gary Chapman does offer an assessment: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile/couples/

This is a great tool that you and your partner can take and learn the best ways to communicate love and build a lasting relationship.

Filed Under: areas of practice, couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, relationship counseling
January 7, 2015 | BY Denise O'Doherty

Happy New Year and “Post-Romantic Stress Disorder”

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! It’s a good time to dig within and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. Make any goals you’d like. Goals give us direction and are an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living your life in the year to come. The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals and visioning our life as we would like it to be.

For my first blog of the year, I highly recommend John Bradshaw’s new book, “Post-Romantic Stress Disorder”. I read it on the plane recently coming back from NY.couples counseling, Marriage Counseling,  relationship counseling,

What a classic and profound book! His focus is on new discoveries about lust, love and saving your marriage before it’s too late. Basically it’s about what to do when the honeymoon is over.

His premise is that too many people break up marriages that are worth saving. He is a strong supporter of IMAGO Relationship counseling and agrees that in marriage we are there to heal our partners childhood wounds. Also that the infatuation stage is supposed to decrease in intensity, and when that happens, most people don’t know how to keep the romance and spark in their relationship. He says that being in-love is spontaneous, yet achieving a fully adult kind of mature love is not. It takes effort. He also says that there are things we’d all like to change about our partners, but we must be willing to change our self first. What I really like is that he confirms what I often tell couples, “couples who find satisfaction together are those who are willing to compromise and allow their partners to have their differences”. You don’t have to think alike to have a good marriage, you have to respect the differences. He also talks about how important it is to have a solid sense of self when entering a relationship and why it is essential. He writes about how to overcome shame and argue effectively. I think this book is particularly good for anyone thinking about couples therapy, marriage therapy or relationship therapy. But also, for individuals who want to know essentials of what makes a healthy relationship work.

A Chance To Learn More

I will be adding some of the concepts of this book in my class, on 2/28/15. “Successful Romantic and Intimate Relationships: How to Make Them Work”. You can register through Leisure Learning Unlimited, www.llu.com or 713-529-4414. It’s on a Saturday from 10am-12noon. Hope to see you there!

Register For  “Successful Romantic and Intimate Relationships: How to Make Them Work“

Filed Under: areas of practice, couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, relationship counseling, self esteem counseling
October 10, 2014 | BY Denise O'Doherty

Bellaire Couples Therapy & Marriage Counseling

Couples come to therapy for many reasons butcouples therapy houston, couples therapy houston, couples counseling houston, marriage counseling houston, marriage therapy houston, couples therapy, relationship therapy houston, couple therapy, marriage counseling in houston, couples counseling houston tx, houston marriage counseling, marriage and couples therapy, couples therapy houston tx, marriage and family therapist, houston relationship therapy, couple therapy houston tx, relationship therapist houston, marriage and family therapists, marriage counseling, couples counseling most frequently for one or more of the following: better communication, more trust, more emotional intimacy or more sexual intimacy.

Often, one partner wants the other to have more empathy, compassion and a better understanding of their perspective. Sometimes people don’t feel safe asking for what they need or want in the relationship. Sometimes people ask for what they want but never seem to get it. Whatever the reason, couples often reach an impasse, unable to get the empathy and understanding they need from each other by themselves.

Statistics today identify the four predictors of divorce to be:
Criticism,  Defensiveness, Withdrawal, and Contempt

By eliminating these adverse coping skills and replacing them with loving and effective skills and techniques, relationships improve. Trust, communication and a loving connection can be restored and re-established.

How Couples Therapy Can Help

Therapy can provide lasting and positive results for couples to have increased satisfaction, and feel more love and connection in the relationship. Couples get faster results when both people are committed to making a positive change.

Therapy gives both people insights about what they want to see differently in themselves and what they want to see differently in their partner and the relationship. It focuses on discovering unmet needs, lost parts, and overcoming defensiveness that prevents intimacy. Therapy promotes insight to give you additional ways to perceive the problems and additional ways to get results.

Together we will:

  • Identify the issues and conflicts that prevent intimacy and safety.
  • Identify factors that you and your partner do to sabotage what you want
  • Help you develop insights and skills to let go of what’s not working and get what you need.
  • Use cutting edge communication skills and techniques to change counterproductive and upsetting behavior
  • Look at how you can support each other effectively and genuinely through the changes you make
  • Create a space where you reach a new level of success in your relationship

On the first visit, I usually ask the couple to come up with three responses to:

“This relationship would be better for me if……1)…. 2)….. 3)….. ”.

How I Can Help

I see my role giving attention, couples therapy houston, couples therapy houston, couples counseling houston, marriage counseling houston, marriage therapy houston, couples therapy, relationship therapy houston, couple therapy, marriage counseling in houston, couples counseling houston tx, houston marriage counseling, marriage and couples therapy, couples therapy houston tx, marriage and family therapist, houston relationship therapy, couple therapy houston tx, relationship therapist houston, marriage and family therapists, marriage counseling, couples counselingsupport and direction to help couples develop what they need to make a break-through rather than a break up. Most therapy is short term.  I teach effective skills that you can use at home. The goal of therapy is to make changes so the couple will have increased satisfaction and feel more love and connection in the relationship.

Pre-Marital Counseling

I also meet with couples prior to weddings and holy unions. Pre-Marital counseling gives couples the opportunity to look at issues that often come up in relationships before they come up! This gives the couple the chance to see where they have differences in values and beliefs, and how they can prevent conflict when these differences arise. You don’t have to agree on everything to have a good relationship, but you have to respect the differences.  I have a pre-commitment questionnaire that addresses relationship issues. These include: money, relatives, children, vacations, work, household chores, sex, dealing with crisis times of life, fidelity, romance, use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs, communication rules, personality differences, role of friends, physical appearance, jealousy, cultural background issues, personal goals, pre-nupual agreements and blending families. Discussing your areas of concern prior to your big day, will give you an insightful and valuable approach to minimizing future problems and maintaining respect for your partner and your relationship.

Let Us Know How I Can Help!

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Filed Under: couples counseling, Marriage Counseling, relationship counseling
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