By Katie Hrapczynski, Ph.D., LCMFT In my years of being a therapist working with couples, there is one dynamic that seems to rear its ugly head time and time again. It’s called the demand-withdraw cycle. Often one partner plays the “demander” (more colloquially and pessimistically considered the “nag”) and the other partner plays the […]
Sex and the City
Laurel Fay provides guest commentary by analyzing Carrie and Big’s relationship in Sex and the City.
Love, Age 6
This morning one of my six year-old daughters confided in me that she is having a problem at school. When I asked her about it, she said that one of her friends, Sam, isn’t talking to her anymore. In fact, he got in trouble yesterday because he put his fingers in his ears and stuck […]
Pain as a Gift?
It’s about midnight, and I can’t sleep because I’m thinking about pain. Today a person I know poured out her pain to me, and it was raw and real and I could feel it, see it. In that moment I felt like she invited me into it, and I accepted, and it hurt. I feel […]
Healing Relationship Wounds
I see a great many couples in my private practice. Lately, there seems to be a theme: couples who have been together or married for many years, who have “grown apart”. This feeling is usually expressed by one partner, while the other is caught somewhat off-guard, not realizing things have gotten as bad as they […]
How To Get Your Partner To Open Up To You
Sometimes it seems as if communicating effectively with one’s partner is an impossible task – overshadowed only by their ability (or lack thereof) to communicate with us. What gets in the way? Why is it so hard to talk to the one you love and be really, deeply understood? That’s what we all want. In […]