Five Steps to Make Your Spouse Your Best Friend Couples Counseling Tips: Fiery romance born from physical attraction is the basis of many engagements and marriages. But stop and think about it: What attributes describe best friend relationships? Honest and open communication, trust, acceptance, support, affirmation, empathy, and enthusiasm for…

Couples Counseling: New Parents Guide to Maintaining a Strong Relationship As a new parent, you are likely to face an inundation of parenting advice, most of it unwelcomed. The best parenting and child development a baby could hope for would be a healthy, happy relationship between the parents and it doesn’t…

PAIR Couple Inventory (About $50.00) David H. Olson & Mark T. Schaefer Couples Counseling: The PAIR (Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships) Inventory is a 36 item instrument that assesses five types of intimacy: emotional, social, sexual, intellectual, and recreational. It enables a person to describe their own relationship as…

Tips on Fighting Emotional Blackmail Emotional blackmail is an issue far more commonplace than people realize. It is defined as someone preying upon the emotions and sensibilities of another for personal gain, rather than external data. This form of extortion usually occurs within close relationships (fathers and sons, mothers and…

An APA (American Psychological Association) Study recently addressed the question of whether marriage helps or hinders the health of women. This is what was found. The study, involving middle-aged women over a 13-year period. Results indicate that women in marriages characterized by high levels of satisfaction showed a health advantage…