Love & Relationships Experts

Every child in school has experienced the fire drill at various points from kindergarten through 12th grade, and even well into college. In California, children practice not only fire drills, but earthquake drills as well, and many universities have drills for various campus warnings and terrorism.

So I propose the following: couldn’t marriage drills be equally as important as all of these other emergencies? And if so, why not make them available to students as early as college? These “marriage drills” could be done in the same manner as all the other emergency-based drills: through role …

By T. U. Dawood

It’s summer and wedding season! If you are a bride-to-be, this article is meant to be a summary of all the latest trends and must-haves with plenty of tips thrown in to make your special day spectacular and fun!

The Organized Bride:

For the woman who wants to plan each detail of her wedding, there is no bigger must-have than a wedding planner. There are some fantastic ones out there like The Knot Book of Wedding Lists: The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Day, Down to the Smallest Detail by Carley Roney and the editors of TheKnot.com (Clarkson Potter/Publishers), Blushi…

Often in significant relationships, there are moments in time when it’s easiest to ‘just do it’, rather than make ‘an issue out of it.’ Instead of being the ‘heavy’, having to ‘talk about it’, or ‘being serious’, it’s just easier ‘to go along.’

In all of human nature there is no more dangerous an act. To not speak your truth is a subtle but significant shift in the balance of a relationship. It begins a viral process, always measuring whether now is the right time to bring something up, tamping down feelings because they may not be welcome.

I see this all the time with my coaching clien…

Karen Maezen Miller is one of my idols. No, really. She, even on the screen, radiates peace, calm, and the hard-won wisdom of someone who has really put in her time to live in her life. I mention the hard-won part because my sense is that for her this is a practice, a deliberate effort. This makes her lambent wisdom all the more impressive to me, and makes her inspiration that much more influential. I highly recommend Maezen’s first book, Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood, and I’ve already preordered her second book, Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life.

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What complex, multi-layered animals humans are. I am melancholy tonight, thick in the fog of free-floating sadness that follows me around, hovering nearby and descending regularly to envelop me. Thinking about the legions that are contained in each single person, the layers of emotion, memory, defenses, and biology that make us who we each are.

A fascinating article in the Atlantic describes a study of 268 men for 72 years. The study’s lofty goal is to understand happiness. The article about Vaillant, the originator of the study, makes many salient points – it is long but well worth readi…

1) Never send a “Thank You” email after a date

Men told me that while they appreciate the “Thank You Email” after a date, it ultimately causes them to lose interest in a woman because men like the chase. They told me that when they receive your email (or text) the morning after a date, they do NOT think, “Oh, what good manners she has to thank me again!” Rather, they think it really means you like them. It’s more deflating than endearing because, if he liked you too, he wanted to contact you first and pursue you.

Thank him graciously at the end of the date, but don’t steal his thunder t…

Over the last several years, I have come to view my work with divorcing individuals, couples, their families and advisors as a calling. At the professional level, it’s a calling to help the parties understand the short- and long-term financial ramifications of their divorce. On a personal level, it goes deeper.

Statistics state the obvious: millions of couples are involved in divorce proceedings each year. If they have children, that number doubles or triples; if they have parents, are part of a community, have other family or friends, the multiplicative effect of the pain and dislocati…