What’s your romantic attachment style?
How do you interact with a romantic partner? Take a minute and ask yourself: Are you usually clingy and possessive? Do you have a tendency to push your partners away? Or are you comfortable with both giving and receiving love to your partner? This pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving towards someone we’re in a…
Read MoreHow codependency can affect relationships
When it comes to relationships, we have been told again and again that it’s better to love others more than you love yourself. Sacrificing yourself is said to be the best way to show your love for someone. However, when we consistently put another’s needs before our own to our detriment, the relationship may be…
Read More5 questions to ask about your partner’s finances before marriage
Having financial discussions can be awkward between couples, much more so for those who are about to get married. After all, we are raised to believe that people are supposed to marry for love, not for money. Many research studies, however, have shown that money is the top source of tension in relationships, and not…
Read MoreEnding the comparison game
For most of us, from a young age we are taught – either directly or indirectly – that we know we are good, right, or valuable if our actions or personal characteristics are in line with those around us. We compare ourselves against classmates and co-workers, social and cultural norms, what is portrayed in the…
Read More7 ways to gain balance in your relationship
Most of us work hard; we’ve families to support, debts to pay, and a retirement to prepare for. But for some, it seems like work is the only focus; they work for 12 or more hours a day and six to seven days a week, regardless of their partner’s feelings on the matter. After all,…
Read More5 keys to growing your relationship with your parents
While it is normal for parent-child relationships to be shaky during the years of adolescence, the conflicts and strife tend to peter out once a child becomes an adult. After all, young adults are mature enough to understand what their parents have gone through by raising them. However, it’s not always a smooth transition, studies…
Read More5 effective strategies to help kids develop stronger self-control
We all know children who are very impulsive. They’re the ones who throw a tantrum at the grocery store because their moms wouldn’t buy them candy. They’re the kids at the playground who nobody plays with because they’re so quick to hit or shout at other children. Impulsive children act on their emotions, regardless of…
Read MoreBuilding Empathy in Your Romantic Relationship
Most of us understand that empathy, or the ability to connect with someone through feeling with them, is an important part of a good romantic relationship. Even though we know this, time and time again we all fall short when it comes to being empathic with our partner. We get critical when we should be…
Read MoreStrategies to Manage Your Defensiveness
We recently discussed ways to identify whether or not you are defensive in your relationship with your romantic partner. If you saw yourself in some of those descriptions and recognize that you are consistently being defensive with your partner, what are some steps you can take toward shifting that behavior into something more productive? A…
Read MoreAre You Being Defensive With Your Partner?
We have mentioned the work of Dr. John Gottman before on the Symmetry Counseling blog. Dr. Gottman has extensively researched what makes some romantic relationships happy and lasting and others miserable and doomed to end, and he has identified four behaviors that can actually predict the demise of a relationship. If they occur often enough,…
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