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Should you talk about your ex with your new partner?

By Jerry / January 8, 2018

It is human nature to want to share our experiences with the one we love. In our intensive couples therapy retreats, we teach that a person’s desire to be “known” by their partner is a foundation of healthy intimacy. It is also human nature to be curious about your partner’s relationship past —a key to learn…

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Do Your In-Laws Make You Crazy?

By Jerry / January 7, 2018

In the thrall of new love’s glow you may have minimized your partner’s expectation for you to have a congenial relationship with your in-laws. In fact, you may not have fully understood that a relationship forms an alliance between two families― each of which has its own cast of quirky, idiosyncratic characters.

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Infidelity: Can a Marriage Survive An Affair?

By Jerry / January 5, 2018

I was reading an article last night by a fellow psychologist on the subject of infidelity. The author is frequently seen on television and the covers of magazines dispensing his golden nuggets of wisdom.  His recommendation to someone who’s discovered his or her partner has cheated on them and is wondering “Can a marriage survive…

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My Partner Says I Need To Tell Her Every Little thing

By Mary Ellen Goggin / October 29, 2017

What is your advice? Every night when Julie gets home from the office, Dan questions her about her day. He expects to hear about the morning commute, project meeting, lunch, phone calls and e-mails with friends. Julie has no interest in reliving her day and usually wants to cuddle and watch a funny show or…

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How to Fix Your Unhappy Marriage Relationship After Infatuation Fades

By Jerry / March 18, 2017

Married friends often commonly complain about the loss of sizzle and ensuing staleness and boredom that creeps into their marriage relationship. They are afraid they can’t fix their unhappy marriage relationship after the infatuation ends. Couples reminisce about how they felt when they fell in love, describing fireworks, shaking earth, clammy hands, flushed cheeks, unbearable…

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Marriage Retreat: Tune-up for a smooth ride

By Mary Ellen Goggin / July 18, 2016

 At a dinner party the other night, an attractive 40-something woman asked me what I do.  I told her that I work with couples who want more satisfying relationships. “You mean you’re a therapist? I don’t believe in therapy. What’s the point?” she scoffed. “My husband and I were married 20 years ago. We’ve never…

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Marriage Counseling Can Transform Your Relationship

By Mary Ellen Goggin / April 5, 2013

A Marriage Counseling Retreat Can Transform Your Relationship Marriage and Couples Counseling can be successful given the right ingredients: readiness, right timing, and resonance with a marriage counselor (and better yet, a counselor couple) who is experienced, knowledgeable, and highly skilled. Private intensive weekend retreats with the right mix of elements can be even more…

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Benefits of Couples Counseling Retreat with a PhD Husband-Wife Team

By Mary Ellen Goggin / April 5, 2013

We’re all human. Well, most of us. Invariably, during an intensive couples counseling retreat, Jerry and I exchange not-so-secret smiles of acknowledgment when one partner starts riffing about an ultra-annoying habit of the other. Think crinkling candy wrappers during movies, open-mouth chewing, fidgeting, fiddling, finger-tapping, incessant sighing, yelling from another room,  not making eye contact,…

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