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Three Indicators You Are Getting Better Through Therapy

Source: Google images

One of the challenges clients face when entering therapy is knowing whether they are improving. Unlike coaching, where clients enter the process with clearly stipulated goals (not dissimilar to hiring a golf coach to improve your swing), therapy is much deeper, and clients often come in with great distress. They only knew one thing in starting therapy: they want the pain to end, all of it!

But pain will always be with us. In fact, to hurt is human.

Due to their great distress, clients can hold on to the notion that therapy should get rid of all their pain. It doesn’t and it is not meant to. What therapy does is to help individuals, couples, and families learn how to manage pain and conflict more effectively.

Perfection is not the goal of therapy. Therapy is to help you improve in your process to the point where you can continue to improve on your own, ready to terminate your work with your therapist. The pain is still there, but you can move on.

A client once asked me, “if the pain is still there, how can you know if you are improving?” Here are three helpful indicators. Continue reading “Three Indicators You Are Getting Better Through Therapy”

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Handling Disagreements — Remaining True While Staying Connected

 

When disagreements arise, it can be difficult to stay connected with the disagreeing person and yet remain true to yourself at the same time. If feels more natural to either blame the other person or to walk away. But if we are to grow into emotional and relational maturity and wellness, we must learn to be able to ask and manage this question in times of conflict:

How can I be fully me and fully us at the same time?

Put it slightly differently: “I want to be true to myself (to be fully me) while I stay connected to you (to remain us), even when we disagree. How can I do that with you?”

I learned this idea from one of my family therapy supervisors many years ago:  move from “either/or” thinking to “both/and” thinking.

We often think in “either/or” terms especially when we are caught up in a fight-or-flight mode during a conflict. Being able to engage in  “both/and” thinking instead gives us new power for creative collaboration.

How does it work?

Continue reading “Handling Disagreements — Remaining True While Staying Connected”

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A Willingness to Part Well Might Save Your High-Conflict Marriage

Source: Google images.

Preface: I work with high-conflict couples stuck in dysfunctional relationship patterns for many years. This post is for such couples. It does not apply to the average  couple who might have short-term disagreements here and there.

The first time I see a couple for an intake session, I take time to explain to them how therapy works. For individuals, I emphasise the importance of the client’s willingness to take up the ownership of his or her own change. For couples, the story is a bit more complex.

I will say to the couple: “Many couples come in to see me hoping that therapy will cause their spouse to change. But if you have been in any longterm relationship, you will know the answer to this question: Is it possible change your spouse if he or she does not see eye-to-eye with you on that change?”

Most will answer, “No.”

I will continue, “So if you cannot change your spouse, what can you do?”

Continue reading “A Willingness to Part Well Might Save Your High-Conflict Marriage”

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New Blog Focus: Living & Leading Well

Starting in 2018, my blog will have a distinct focus. I will be writing practical, readable articles to help busy executives and discerning homemakers with helpful advice for “living and leading well.”

What do I mean by “living and leading well?” Basically, how to be happy in life and family, and how to achieve success as managers and leaders in the workplace.

The fundamentals for positive living in both family and work are actually the same. First, manage yourself. Second, manage your relationships.

Continue reading “New Blog Focus: Living & Leading Well”

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Expat Support Group in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

[UPDATE: Rekindle’s Expat Support Group’s first meeting was a success, and from participant feedback, we will be running meetings twice a month. Click here for the latest brochure information.]

Most people think of the expat life as easy and filled with perks and benefits. What is not seen are the INVISIBLE STRESSORS of expat living:

– Difficulty adjusting to cultures and languages
– Inability to get the right foods for your family’s diet
– Concerns about physical safety
– Changes in lifestyle (e.g. “my husband is hardly ever home now”)
– Grief and loss of relationships with family and friends

…and the list goes on.

Continue reading “Expat Support Group in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)”

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Rethinking Work-Life Balance: 3 Helpful Reframes

As I was leaving for work, my son came running to hug me. I had stayed out late working the last few days and did not see much of him. His eyes misted over while we hugged and a pang of guilt hit me. “I really suck at this work-life balance thing,” I thought myself. For the rest of the day, I mulled over why achieving balance can be so difficult.

Source: Google images

When we think of the word “balance,” the picture that comes to mind most often is that of a weighing scale. A weighing scale implies fairness — a static fairness. When one side dips down, it is necessarily unfair to the other side. Balance is a static state that is only achieved when both sides are equal.

Continue reading “Rethinking Work-Life Balance: 3 Helpful Reframes”

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Date Your Spouse Online!

online-dating
Source: Google images.

Want to give your marital blahs a little lift? Try this online dating profile activity for married couples.

My wife and I have been married for more than 15 years. In fact, next month will mark our 16th anniversary together. We have gone through our fair share of ups and downs, and like many couples, after a while of doing regular life, things can get dull.

Continue reading “Date Your Spouse Online!”