We all have protective strategies which keep us from feeling vulnerable. Unfortunately, these dynamics cause damage to a relationship. Terry Real names five losing strategies in relationships. The first step of changing destructive interactions is to understand your partner’s protective mechanisms but more importantly what your own defaults are.
Category: Communication
How Do I Accurately Assess a Potential Relationship Partner?
Are you dating and wondering if the other person is the right long-term partner for you? What is required to assess another person realistically and minimize repeating heartbreak and disappointment?
Expressing Criticism So It Can Be Heard
Why does criticism so often feel like we are being stabbed in the heart? Historically being criticized could lead to being ostracised from our tribe, and that could mean death. Our more instinctive parts of our brain still operate on that fear. However, relationships require us to communicate honestly and to handle criticism constructively. How does one express a complaint in a way that it can be easily heard and does not feel like being stabbed in the heart?
Can I Come in with My New Girlfriend?
What topics should we talk about at the start of a relationship? Relationship coaching helps you and your new love to learn to communicate about challenging topics and to learn to hold each other in those vulnerable moments we all experience. Coaching allows you to become aware of old patterns and to release them. What kind of topics can you explore at the start of a relationship either with a coach or by yourselves?
Pura Vida (Costa Rica 1)
Did you know that Costa Rica rates as one of the happiest countries in the world? Ticos have a very relaxed, simple way of looking at life called “Pura Vida”. They are conscious of nature, and they make family and friends their primary focus. Pura Vida is being thankful for what you have and not dwelling on lack or misfortune.
How Do I Ask My Partner to Attend a Coaching Session with Me?
How do you express a need or wish most successfully to your partner? Saying “I need you to…”, will most likely result in your partner feeling he or she has no choice. They might feel cornered, resistant and get defensive as there is no room to move. Read how you can communicate your needs, for example the wish for them to attend couples sessions with you, more successfully. And what can you do when he or she still refuses?
The Nothing Box
Have you ever asked your male partner, “What are you thinking?” and the answer was, “nothing”? It seems women cannot fathom the concept that one could not be thinking anything at a given point in time—unless you are asleep or dead. Men, so we are told, have a “nothing box” in their brain. What is going on with that nothing box and how can we navigate the different needs men and women have in regards to communication.
Getting to the Complaint Underneath the Criticism
It can be challenging to respond to criticism without defensiveness and to stay open to hearing the complaint underneath. Being criticized can shift our autonomic nervous system into defense mode as if we are being attacked. What techniques can we use to remain open and to hear the complaint or longing underneath the other person’s criticism?
Do You Trust Me?
To trust means to place our faith or confidence in something unknown. What key components does trust have and how do these aspects affect our relationships?
I love you! I love you! I love you!
Is it good to get your negative feelings out? Or does venting have a negative side-effect for our relationship? Positive flooding is a way to re-pattern our brain from feeling unsafe with our partner to feeling loved.
“Good night, John Boy!” – What is Family?
We probably all hold the archetype of the “picture book perfect family,” like the Waltons, in our mind. But it is 2017, not the 1930’s, and the reality is that we are faced with more complicated family dynamics, other challenges, and different conflicts than the Waltons would have ever dreamed of.
Groundhog Day – Communication Styles
Do you have a family member or co-worker who is not responding to what you are saying? Does it feel like they don’t hear you? We can feel so alone and get frustrated when that occurs. The solution is easier than you might think.