“We used to be intimate all the time. I don’t know what happened.” I hear this a lot from the couples I work with. Their relationship started out so passionate and romantic. Now, years later, they find intimacy lacking, and they are not sure why. Is the Honeymoon Over? Part of the reason is what…
I’ve been the woman sitting on the plush couch, tissue in one hand and hot green tea in the other, telling a mental health professional, “I don’t know who I am anymore. I’ve lost myself.” My identity crisis was birthed by postpartum depression. As a new mama with a four-week-old baby boy, I felt overwhelming…
A Valentine’s Celebration of Real Love You’re sitting across from your partner at dinner. Maybe the restaurant is loud. Maybe they’re telling a story you’ve heard before. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re wondering: shouldn’t this feel more… exciting? Here’s the truth nobody tells you about Valentine’s Day: the “magic” you’re chasing—that…
Chapter 2 Have Low-Conflict Conversations About Money and Enhance Intimacy You’ve met your soulmate and decided to get married, engaged, or move in together. But while making plans for your happy life together, you soon discover that you have a spender-saver dynamic and that discussing money evokes a variety of complex emotions such as shame,…
When Rebecca Woolf, author of All of This and the braid on Substack and mother of four, became a widow in her 30s, one feeling struck her as particularly unexpected: desire. Watching her husband lose his life force made her crave the feeling of being alive more than ever. “Eighty percent of my readers told…
“We love because he first loved us.” In a world where love has been redefined, grandparents need to emphasize the source of love—God. Explain to your grandchildren how God first loved us, enabling us to love others. Without God, there would be no love at all! Add a prayer that says, “Lord, please help my…
What to Expect in Midlife Perimenopause symptoms that signal the beginning of the menopause transition for women happen a lot earlier than many of us expect and not the way we often anticipate. The average age of menopause (the day after a woman has gone a full year without her period) is 51. Everyday after…
In 2026, the American psyche is grappling with a profound sense of collective displacement. The emotional landscape is no longer defined by typical policy debates, but by a pervasive state of hypervigilance. For many, the country feels less like a home and more like a volatile environment where the “rules of the game” change by…
How to Discern Counterfeit Relationships and Trust God’s “No” Have you ever been in a relationship with a guy who you thought was the one? I mean, he was the perfect package on the outside—tall, handsome, said all the right things, and even attended church regularly. He seemed to be everything you prayed for in…
An excerpt from The Intimate Animal by Kinsey Institute Director Dr. Justin Garcia where he illuminates the mysteries of how we date, mate and navigate our love lives. The post Broken Up But Not Forgotten appeared first on The Gottman Institute.