Blog
How to Turn Down Your Partner’s Sexual Advances with Love
Navigating differences in desire is a normal part of any intimate relationship. However, saying no to your partner’s sexual advances can still feel awkward or uncomfortable, even when you know it’s the right thing for you at the moment. These moments might leave you...
Love Yourself First: Solo Valentine’s Day Celebration Ideas for Self-Love
Valentine’s Day often brings to mind romantic dinners, flowers, and gifts exchanged between partners. For those spending the day solo, the holiday may bring a sense of loneliness or pressure to meet societal expectations. However, the day is also a wonderful...
Emotional Distance: Common Causes & How to Reconnect With Your Partner
Emotional distance can create a painful void in a relationship, leaving you feeling disconnected from the person who once felt like your closest confidant. You might find yourself yearning for the closeness you once shared, unsure how to bridge the gap that has grown...
How to Make Your Partner Feel Special on Special Days
Special days like anniversaries, birthdays, or personal milestones provide a wonderful opportunity to strengthen your relationship and deepen your bond with your partner. Thoughtful gestures and meaningful actions can leave a lasting impression on your partner and...
What is Emophilia?
The honeymoon phase of a new relationship is always exciting. The rush of emotions, the overwhelming strength of your feelings, the enchanted feeling of being in love… it’s certainly intense! But for some people, that intensity leads to moving too fast. Before you...
What Are the Love Languages?
Have you ever talked to your partner about the way you like to be loved? If so, you might have been communicating your love language! Love languages are a great way to express needs and emotions in a way that’s easy for relationship partners to understand. Whether...
What Is Negativity Bias & How to Overcome It
You know how we’ve coined the term “doom scrolling” to refer to the constant stream of bad news on our phones? Have you ever noticed that the world seems to be in an eternal, non-stop war? Does everything seem hopeless… but at the same time, people are just going on...
How to Heal Relational Trauma & Build Healthy Relationships
If you have experienced relational trauma, starting a relationship can feel really scary. Relational trauma can occur during childhood or adulthood and could consist of neglect, abandonment, or abuse from someone who was meant to care for you and be a safe person....
Tips for Your First Therapy Session
One of the biggest barriers to therapy is just getting started. There’s a lot to manage! You have to find a therapist that’s right for you, and you have to be ready for the session. While there’s lots of stereotypes of a therapy session– the couch, the notepad, the...
Tips for Setting Goals in a Relationship: Building a Stronger Future Together
Setting goals is an important part of any relationship. Just as individuals set personal goals to achieve growth and fulfillment, partners can also benefit from setting shared goals that foster connection, understanding, and long-term happiness. Goal-setting helps...
It’s Okay If You Don’t Set Resolutions (or Keep Them)
As the calendar turns to January, it’s easy to feel the pressure to set New Year’s resolutions. Every year, millions of people commit to sweeping lifestyle changes with the hope of becoming a “better” version of themselves. While the new year might seem like the...
Letting Go of Perfection: How to Embrace Progress Over Perfection This Year
The pursuit of perfection can feel empowering, but it is often a barrier to personal growth. While striving for excellence is societally celebrated, the rigid pursuit of perfection can create a cycle of stress, procrastination, and fear of failure. This mindset often...
Positive Emotion Dysregulation: What Is It and How Does It Impact Trauma Healing?
Fear, shame, grief, panic – these are typically what we associate with the emotional experience of trauma. The thing is, trauma doesn’t just heighten fear or sadness – it can also complicate how we experience positive emotions like joy, love, and hope. What happens...
I Feel Alone in My Relationship – Why?
Being in a relationship often brings expectations of emotional connection, intimacy, and companionship. But why do so many people find themselves feeling isolated and disconnected, even within a committed partnership? This experience of feeling alone in a relationship...
How To Deal With Difficult In-Laws
Jokes about difficult in-laws– usually the mother-in-law– are as old as the concept of marriage. In fact, the oldest written mother-in-law joke comes from Juvenal, a 1st century Roman writer. But there’s often some bitter reality behind these jokes; couples often...
What To Do When You and Your Partner Are Both Feeling Depressed
Depression is hard on relationships. When you’re depressed, it’s hard to muster enthusiasm for anything you love– and that can include your partner. And when your partner is depressed, it can be confusing for the relationship; it can seem like your partner doesn’t...
Reconnecting with Your Emotions: Why It Matters
From a young age, many of us are taught that our emotions don’t matter. We learn to silence them, doubt them, or push them aside. Maybe you've heard things like "it’s not that bad" when something really did feel bad, leading you to question your feelings. Or, “calm...
Is Depression Contagious?
When we talk about contagious diseases, we generally think of things like Covid, chicken pox, and the flu. We usually don’t think about mental illnesses– but social behaviors can spread among people, and can lead to mental health challenges. Let’s explore how...
Tips for Building a Healthy Relationship with Food
Food can be a complicated subject. It nourishes us, it brings us pleasure, it helps us connect to our culture; but at the same time, it can also lead to disordered eating, guilt, body image issues, and confusion about what to eat. But there are ways to rebuild and...
We Used to Be So Close. What happened? (And How to Get Back)
To state the obvious, we all know that relationships, particularly intimate partnerships, take work and intention. But even with all the good intentions, you can still find that your relationship is in trouble. And this can feel really awful. What do you do when this...
Understanding and Coping with Loneliness Anxiety
Understanding the Fear of Being Alone Does everyone seem to be in a happy relationship around you? Do you feel more alone than ever? Research indicates that the fear of being alone, often termed "loneliness anxiety," is a common experience. A study published in The...