By Alexandra Schwartz — 2018
From the New Yorker Festival, the couples therapist and podcast host discusses infidelity, apologies, and the problem with wedding vows these days.
Read on www.newyorker.com
CLEAR ALL
The problem with sexual withholding in a marriage has far less to do with actually having or not having sex and much more to do with misunderstanding.
Are you sometimes aware of holding yourself back from being fully engaged in the experience of the moment? Do you find yourself avoiding activities that bring you pleasure or friends you enjoy spending time with?
Withholding, what is it? Well it is a defined as an emotionally abusive behavior or tactic, a form of denying, refusing to communicate or do something for your partner as a punishment.
Relationship dances between these two types can become very complicated.
Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, authors of Making Marriage Simple: 10 Truths for Changing the Relationship You Have into the One You Want, reveal a strategy they discovered in their own struggles, which can lead to a massive, permanent turnaround.
1440: Is it true that on the whole we're not very good listeners? Harville: In the resting state, when we're not distracted, the research shows we have a 13–18% accuracy rate.
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Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., one of North America's leading authorities on communication and relationships, talks about why we fall in and out of love; how to heal yourself after a divorce; and how to talk -- and listen -- powerfully.
When we fall in love, we see life in Technicolor. We nibble each other's ears and tell each other everything; our limitations and rigidities melt away. We're sexier, smarter, funnier, more giving. We feel whole; we're connected.
Most of us struggle at one time or another with an inability to feel what’s going on inside us at the level of emotion and energy flow. The technical term for this problem is “alexithymia.”
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For over two decades, I have worked with men and women from around the world to help them improve their relationships.