Participating in my Partners in Living Courses

I develop workshops that are designed for couples who are interested in expanding passion, play and partnership in their marriage. In my courses, called Partners in Living, couples work on areas of their life where they want to experience greater alignment, freedom and power. Through facilitated activities and fun exercises, couples envision a future for […]

The Power of Alignment

Webster’s dictionary defines alignment as “the act of bringing into close cooperation, to ally with, to associate with, or to side with.” Couples who see themselves as partners in life together tend to be aligned on their values, in their lifestyle, and in their vision for their relationship and their future. When something in their […]

Calling a ‘Do Over’

You know those times in your marriage when everything is hunky dory and one of you starts a simple little conversation about something that is a little prickly. You are about to do something together like go out to dinner or go play tennis or visit friends and one of you says, “Our checking account […]

Having Rules for Fighting Fair

Because having arguments and conflicts are natural occurrences in marriage, working out rules for “fair fighting” can be very important. Fighting fair means that both individuals have a mutual commitment to care for each other and their relationship when arguments arise. Emotions might get heated, differing viewpoints might get expressed and the conversation at hand […]

Transforming Common Family Dilemmas

Parents with children who have developmental and medical disabilities have in common a number of family dilemmas that they deal with on a day-to-day basis. Many parents are comforted when they find out they are not alone in their experience and they gain strength in coping with their unique circumstances when they understand that many […]

Negotiating Roles and Responsibilities

One of the unrelenting, day-to-day realities for many couples today is getting all of the household responsibilities done to the satisfaction of both parties. How a couple works out their household roles and responsibilities can be the source of frustration and conflict or it can be the expression of effective teamwork. It could be said […]

Three Forms of Marriage Partnership

There is no one set of values that a couple can adopt that will form the basis of an enduring, fulfilling marriage partnership. Each couple co-creates the values that are important to their relationship.  John Gottman (1994), a marriage researcher and expert, studied 2000 different couples and found that there were three stable forms of […]

Supporting Growth and Development

One of the ideals in a partnership marriage is that both individuals can fulfill their commitment to self-expression, personal growth and life goals inside of marriage today. Most couples recognize that they must continually grow and develop throughout their life together or their marriage will stagnate. That, however, requires a commitment from both partners to […]

Creating an Intentional Marriage

Coontz (2005) writes that married couples today “need to be more intentional about their lives and about the reasons and the rituals that help them stay together.”  Doherty (2001) suggests that there are two kinds of marital commitment: The tentative commitment and the permanent commitment.  When couples make a tentative commitment, they are committed to […]

Challenging Assumptions in your Marriage

If you and your partner have an area of life in which you are having difficulty expressing partnership, you very likely have assumptions that are limiting your view of yourself, your partner and your partnership.  The purpose of the exercise below is for you, as a couple, to identify some of your limiting assumptions that […]