This false sense of control gives the co-dependent the feeling that they are not vulnerable when they are in a relationship. They think they have the power to…

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When a person moves out of their comfort zone, they are stepping into a whole new world, and there is a tendency to hang on to the old, even though it’s causing psychological difficulty.

Usually a great deal of trust exists between them, which allows them to be vulnerable and share and communicate their emotions with each other. Emotional intimacy is created and then lost in long-term relationships. The problem in Western culture is that when we lose the emotional intimacy, we don’t have the behaviors or attitudes that allow us to

I often ask clients how they feel emotionally, and they will answer that they feel bad or good. It is so common for people to view the terms bad or good as if they are human emotions. The truth is that these words are value judgments, not human emotions.

A relationship where no risk is taken may look stable or even ideal from the outside looking in, but when viewed from behind closed doors there exists little emotional or sexual intimacy. Sexual frequency is usually infrequent.

In my practice, I see many clients who have been married for many years and now find themselves newly single. They may have self-esteem about being in a new relationship, but they have no confidence in being single.

Like many of you, I was always asked that proverbial question when growing up, “So what are you going to be when you grow up, Danny?” If you answered what your parents wanted to hear, then you got all kinds of accolades, but if you said something that they didn’t approve of, you were judged and felt awful. I always got the feedback that I was good

Boundaries that chronically fail to keep people separated enough are typically described as enmeshed, which means they begin to lose their sense of self in the relationship. This occurs because they are unable to set psychological boundaries and generally are afraid of creating conflicts in the relationship.

If the client tells me that he is comfortable with getting married, then I say, “Great, go forward. You most likely will not regret your decision, because it’s the right one for you.” It’s such a simple process, and yet so many people find it difficult to make personal decisions. We are not taught as children to listen to our feelings; we are taugh