Intensive Marriage Therapy
Three-year-old and five-year-old boys drive moving truck into neighbor’s yard barely missing the house.
It’s true. Two years ago our boys climbed into the moving truck while we were loading it and knocked the faulty gear shifter out of park and disengaged the emergency brake. There were no keys in the truck and we didn’t realize they had climbed in. All we knew was that the truck was rolling down our driveway, straight towards our neighbor’s house. Continue Reading
Often people think that empathy and sympathy are really the same thing, when in fact, they are very, very different.
This short, minute and a half video will explain and have you empathizing with the best of them in no time.
Three years ago last month some of our dear friends, Andrea and Tyler Gasser, lost their four month old little boy, Beckett. She went upstairs to her bedroom to wake him up from a nap only to find him unconscious. Days in the pediatric ICU did not revive him.
I remember when I received the phone call telling me that they had asked someone to bring them a pair of jammies and a blanket from home so they could wrap him up and hold him one last time before they removed life support and said good-bye. I wept for their family. My heart still hurts for them. At the time, I had a 4 week old baby boy and I grieved along with her as I could so easily imagine myself in her situation.
When these kinds of tragedies or difficulties happen, most of us do not know what to do or what to say. We don’t know how to help someone grieve. We know that our expressions of, “I’m so sorry for your loss” feel trite and even awkward, yet we care deeply and want to help. Most of the time, we just don’t know how.Continue Reading
How do you know when sibling teasing becomes too much? There can be a fine line between playful banter and nasty comments. Siblings are close enough to know your quirks, your fears and your weaknesses — the good, the bad and the ugly. For someone in such a trusted role to say hurtful things can gnaw away at self-esteem over time. In my recent interview with SheKNOWS, I explain that
“Most adults would say they can still remember the hurtful things their siblings said to them as kids,” shares Kim Blackham, LMFT. “If teasing involves hurtful comments, parents should always step in and stop it.” Speak to your children about how the other child feels when hurtful things are said, and help them to build a sense of empathy towards their brother or sister. READ MORE
The following video clip beautifully illustrates the power of empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Empathy allows us to step into someone else’s shoes, truly listen to their experiences, and relate to their emotions. It goes beyond sympathy or pity; it is a genuine effort to connect and validate the human experience.
Inevitably, all of my clients want to know, “If this is normal – this pursuing and withdrawing, how do we fix it.”
The good news is that because we know how relationships go wrong, we do know how to fix it. We understand that while it may appear that we are fighting over sex, money, or in-laws, we are really caught in this negative cycle of pursuing and withdrawing and don’t know how to get out. Recognizing the cycle – to the point that each of you can own your position in it and fully understand what it is that you do – pursue or withdraw and why – is the first step in healing it.
After Anna realizes Elsa’s power to freeze and why she has stayed hidden and closed off for so many years, she chases Elsa to her “Kingdom of Isolation,” declaring her understanding and love for Elsa.Continue Reading
