A woman I knew once told me that she couldn’t imagine being single. Her name was Mary Ellen. She was married to a great guy named Stephen who loved her and treated her well. They both had successful careers and had just bought a house together.
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Relationships with sociopaths
I will sometimes meet a new client that is struggling to come to terms with the actions of a sociopath. The sociopath may be a member of their family — a husband or a father, for example. While the sociopaths in the following stories happen to be male, please be aware they can also be female. The prevalence […]
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Clarify your intentions: Say what you mean
It is not uncommon to hear from one of my clients that their relationship with their spouse or child or parent is in trouble. They may say they do not feel as close as they once did. They may say they no longer talk very much, and that they don’t know how to get the closeness […]
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Talk to your aging parents about necessary changes
Talking to your aging parent about the physical and mental losses they are experiencing as they age can be difficult, especially when major decisions and life changes need to be made.
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Switching roles: When elderly parents become dependent
Talking to your aging parents about the physical and mental losses they are experiencing is not easy. This is often because your parents are used to being “the parent” in the relationship, and you are used to being the child.
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Ending a toxic relationship with a parent
Are you estranged from a parent? Have you chosen to cut-off contact because of on-going abuse? It is neither unthinkable nor unacceptable for someone to choose to end a relationship because their parent is abusive.
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Toxic family relationships: When to quit
Toxic relationships with family members are unhealthy, and can be so emotionally damaging that the person being harmed may need to end the relationship.
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Proceed cautiously: Trauma re-enactments in adult relationships
Adult survivors of childhood abuse often experience problems related to their early abuse in their relationships as adults. This may be because humans become hard-wired during early life to recognize future relationships that resemble the relationships they had with their parents through a process called limbic resonance.
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Must I provide care to my unhealthy or aging parent?
The quick answer to that question is “No, you do not have to provide care to an unhealthy or aging parent as an adult, especially when that parent abused you as a child.” All parents commit to “the most basic contract” when they conceive and decide to keep and raise a child, which is, as […]
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Why you stay in a bad relationship
Sometimes a client will tell me that their spouse doesn’t treat them very well, and will ponder aloud why they remain in the relationship.
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