communication

Do you have the tools to build a successful marriage?

We’ve all heard the old saying “marriage takes work.” But exactly how much work does it take? Do we all possess the skills that it takes to harbor a successful marriage or are we setting ourselves up for failure?

If you look around at the couples you know, some seem to have a better emotional connection than others. You can tell by their interactions, their body language and even by how they behave apart from their spouses.Do the differences that we see between ourselves and other couples mean that some partners are just luckier than others, or are they on to something that the rest of us don’t know about?

Dr. Bob Dick has been helping couples tap into the skills they need to make a marriage work for more than four decades. In addition to working with couples, individuals and kids at CenterPoint Psychotherapy Associates in Raleigh, NC and Haven Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC, he trains other psychotherapists. He’s also a 2-term former president of the North Carolina Society of Clinical Hypnosis and an Approved Consultant with The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

To find out more about Dr. Bob Dick and his practice, CenterPoint Psychotherapy Associates, you can visit his website or call 919-215-4703 for an appointment.

Does your marriage partner think that the world revolves around them?

There’s a lot of good information out there to help a troubled marriage survive, but when it comes to a marriage in which one spouse suffers from narcissism, there are very few resources available on how to make it work. Some statistics suggest that many troubled marriages contain one partner who has some degree of narcissism – and the outcome is fairly predictable.

When one spouse thinks that the marriage revolves around him or her, it causes extreme stress on the entire marriage. Usually the other spouse recognizes the problem, repeatedly tries to fix the issues and, unfortunately, is unable to change things.

Often, a marriage with this kind of stress will easily collapse but John O’Donoghue believes there are solutions. In many cases, he suggests the most important factor for change is the ability to understand how the narcissistic partner thinks and the willingness to accept it.

John O’Donoghue is a marriage and family therapist with John O’Donoghue Therapy Services in Raleigh, NC. John specializes in providing psychotherapy to individuals, couples and families. He helps people understand what life is like with a narcissistic partner and works to try to make marriages successful when one spouse is narcissistic.

To learn more about John and his practice, visit his website or call 919-341-2477 to make an appointment.

Are you sabotaging your love life?

Statistics show that 85 percent of single women can’t wait to get married– but do they really want the whole package? We already know that women have vastly different expectations of marriage than men do so it should be no surprise that men don’t always live up to those expectations. Throughout the phases of marriage, however, many things can change.

As many as 70 percent of wives express unhappiness and dissatisfaction in their marriages over time– which is a pretty big number. Is that just part of the natural cycle that marriages go through, or does it signal a larger issue? When women are dissatisfied, what do they do about it?

This episode, our guest has the answers to these questions and can help explain why couples experience these cycles. She also has some tips on marriage– how to make it, break it or keep it. Susan Shapiro Barash is the author of 13 books, including The Nine Phases of Marriage. Susan teaches gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College and helps women understand the issues they face during marriage.

To learn more about Susan Shapiro Barash visit her website. Visit BookTrib to find out more about Susan’s many publications.