Porn is a problem in many marriages. In an earlier post, I referred to several resources from an expert on the subject, Dr. Mark Laaser. The comments on that post are also worth reading. If porn is an issue in your marriage, I hope you will check it out. A lot of women take offense at porn. It makes them question their husbands’ respect and love for them. It feels like infidelity to them...
If You Think You Can’t Go On Being Married
On the brink of throwing in the towel and filing for divorce? Diane Sollee of Smart Marriages (website of the Coalition for Marriage, Family, and Couples Education) has a page on what to expect and what else to try first. I highly recommend it. If,instead, your spouse is proposing divorce, she has another great page of resources for fighting a divorce. There are some irreparable marriages out...
We Just Grew Apart
That is what many people say when their marriages die. Every day, you have a choice. Grow together or grow apart. If you would like to grow together, find new things to do together that use the top strengths each of you brings to the marriage. Have you tried cooking classes? An internet business? A garden? Building a canoe? Hiking the Appalachian Trail? Backpacking across China? Buying a pair of...
Celebrity Divorces
Judging by the amount of media space they get, we all want to read about celebrity divorces. How is it that they find a beautiful, highly successful spouse and throw the wedding of their dreams (and ours) but cannot stand each other for even as long as we less famous folk do? John Tierney and Garth Sundern have been working on this conundrum. In 2006, they published a formula for predicting the...
Improve Your Marriage Singlehandedly
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Lunch Break columnist Elizabeth Bernstein offered great hope to anyone in a less-than-perfect marriage. She reported the results of a study by Howard Markman, one of the marriage education greats I have studied with. His lab at the University of Denver followed 300 couples for five years after receiving marriage skills training. One month after training...