Relationships

Untitled design (5)

Repairing Heartache: How to Heal After Relationship Grief

By | | Christian Counseling, Family, Grief, Relationships

Now what do I do? What happens when the people closest to you break your heart? What happens when your spouse betrays you? What do you do when your children ignore or demean you? What do you do when your friends forget about you? What happens when your life derails from the careful way you’ve worked, planned, and built it? Relationships of all types can grieve without anyone dying. Grief is loss, not necessarily death. “Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the […]

Repairing Heartache: How to Heal After Relationship Grief Read More »

Untitled design (4)

Forgiveness and Letting Go

By | | Abuse, Christian Counseling, Relationships

With many in the country celebrating Lent and looking forward to Easter, it is a good time to talk about forgiveness. Forgiveness is more than just a word; it is an action. Understanding Forgiveness Clinical Perspective: Forgiveness is not condoning the offense or excusing the offender. It is a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment, anger, and vengeance toward someone who has harmed you, regardless of whether they deserve it. It’s about freeing yourself from the grip of the past. Faith-Based Perspective: In our Christian faith, forgiveness is a core principle. It is a Godly attribute that humans

Forgiveness and Letting Go Read More »

Ladies Talking Coffee Shop

The Lost Art of Conversation

By | | Couples Counseling, Family, Personal Growth, Relationships

Relationships Take Work Relationships may not be a job, but they are a form of work. Relationships can be fulfilling, but they can also be a source of pain. When developing healthy relationships, certain aspects must be tended to for the relationship to be considered healthy. What if, while forming these relationships, certain foundations were not built effectively? How can I blame someone for something they were never taught how to do effectively? What is the point of a conversation? What is a conversation designed to do? What makes conversations so crucial to relationships? What happens when people cannot have

The Lost Art of Conversation Read More »

pexels gustavo fring 4017424

The Role of Attachment in Relationships

By | | Mental Health, Personal Growth, Relationships, Trauma

According to John Bowlby, British psychiatrist and founder of attachment theory, “attachment is a lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.” The first attachment relationship typically develops with one’s primary caregivers during infancy (first 18 months of life). Attachment theory describes how early caregiver relationships shape our patterns of relating across the lifespan and create a template for how we build and interpret relationships. Essentially, how primary caregivers act towards and meet a child’s needs form the foundation for how a child will perceive and act in close relationships (their attachment style). Attachment theory research, which began in the 1950s and

The Role of Attachment in Relationships Read More »

pexels cottonbro 3171151

How Expectations Stole Christmas: Managing Family Expectations During the Holiday Season 

By | | Anxiety, Christian Counseling, Family, Relationships, Stress

“Gifts, Gifts Gift, Gifts” The famous character the Grinch from Dr, Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas offers a picture of holiday stress. As depicted in the book, the Christmas season brings about a variety of emotions (Seuss, 1957). While the Grinch’s solution was to stop Christmas from coming altogether, many couples may relate and feel emotions ranging from elation, and joy, to stress and grief showing that the season can be an overwhelming time.  Common Sources of Holiday Tension  Managing Family Dynamics and Schedules – The holiday season fills calendars with parties, concerts, parades, shopping, and travel plans. The

How Expectations Stole Christmas: Managing Family Expectations During the Holiday Season  Read More »

Boundaries Blog by Sam

Healthy Boundaries: A DBT Approach to Enhancing Relationships and Self-Respect

By | | Abuse, Couples Counseling, Family, Personal Growth, Relationships

In Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), boundaries play a central role in fostering emotional well-being and creating fulfilling, respectful relationships. Learning how to set healthy boundaries can be life-changing, but it’s a skill that often takes practice. Understanding boundaries through the lens of DBT provides us with powerful tools to communicate more effectively, take care of ourselves, and maintain balance in our interactions with others. What Are Boundaries? Boundaries define where we end and where others begin. They’re the limits we set to protect our emotional, physical, and mental well-being. Think of boundaries as the guidelines for how we want to

Healthy Boundaries: A DBT Approach to Enhancing Relationships and Self-Respect Read More »

A couple in love sitting outside

The Heart of Relationship: Love and the Elements

By | | Christian Counseling, Relationships

The Christian worldview is set into motion in Genesis in the Bible as scripture paints a picture of how our world came into being.  It relays the creation story and describes how God chose to bring to life an earth that was empty, dark, and formless.  God shares how he spoke and brought together many elements to form and order our world.  He describes also how He created mankind in His own image to rule over His creation.  Genesis portrays a momentary pause for reflection as chapter one nears its conclusion: “God saw all that he had made, and it

The Heart of Relationship: Love and the Elements Read More »