Dr. Brent Atkinson is author of Emotional Intelligence in Couples Therapy and co-founder of the Couples Clinic in Geneva, Illinois. The Clinic is home to an innovative team of therapist/educators who have pioneered methods for improving relationships that are used widely by marriage counselors and educators across the United States.
Being Present in the Face of Grief (D. Brooks)
New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks writes this week of one family’s trauma, following the death of their 27-year-old daughter and the severe injury of their second daughter, Catherine, a few years later at the age of 26. He shares lessons drawn by the Woodiwisses, which at least apply to their own experience, about how those of us outside the zone of trauma might better communicate with those inside the zone.
Love and Power – Part 2 (Estroff Marano)
Part 2: What an “equal” relationship, one in which power is shared, looks like:
Hara Estroff Marano’s Psychology Today article on love and power explores how equally shared power in long-term relationships creates happy individuals and satisfying, intimate connections. A sidebar in the article lists the relational elements generally present in relationships where power is shared.
Love and Power – Part 1 (Estroff Marano)
Part 1: Shared power is the only power
In a recent article entitled “Love and Power” in Psychology Today, Hara Estroff Marano interviews marital therapists and psychologists from across the nation, and shares their conclusion that only equally shared power creates happy individuals and satisfying marriages. Increasingly, shared power is the passport to intimacy.
Holding on to Yourself in Relationship (D. Schnarch)
The clinical abilities of psychologist and sex therapist David Schnarch attract clients and students from across the globe. He has written several landmark books on intimacy, sexuality, and relationships. Unlike other master therapists who speak of long-term relationship in terms of rebuilding “attachment,” Schnarch speaks of differentiation.
Loving Like an Elephant
18th-century poet Alexander Pope notes: “The proper study of mankind is man, but when one regards the elephant, one wonders.”
Writes Rich Lowry this week in the New York Post: “One wonders particularly after reading an extraordinary essay, “Do Elephants Have Souls?” published in The New Atlantis (Winter/Spring 2013).
Facial Expressions – A Universal Map of Emotions?
In 2001 the American Psychological Association named Paul Ekman (b. 1934) one of the most influential psychologists of the entire 20th century. In 2009 Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Lisa Barrett, professor of psychology at Northeastern University, is not impressed by the research that has made Ekman famous.
On Neediness and Eroticism (E. Perel)
In the TED talk shared below, psychotherapist/sex therapist Esther Perel presents with her usual brilliantly nuanced approach to love, sex and desire. She notes that our era is the first time in human history that couples are looking to sustain love and desire across decades; in that quest, they often “ask of one person what was once asked of an entire village.”