Fatherhood Channel

Going to a marriage therapist may be one of the worst decisions a couple can make for their relationship. For many, it’s the beginning of an expensive, time-consuming journey that often contributes to divorce. Through incompetence, neutrality, pathologizing, and undermining relationships, therapists can actually harm marriages and lead couples rapidly down the road to divorce. Consider asking these important questions before deciding if marriage therapy is right for you. As an alternative to marriage therapy, many couples have found marriage education far more effective.

Strategies and tips for people living, learning, playing, or working with a bully.

What’s working well in your marriage? These tips from the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center can help you take the pulse of your relationship and consider opportunities to take your marriage to another level.

With weekly episodes beginning Thursday in Jay Leno’s previous 10:00pm time slot, The Marriage Ref’s celebrity panelists such as Madonna, Tina Fey, Eva Longoria Parker, and Larry David are sure to bring a valuable message to millions of couples: differences are a normal part of every relationship. Learning to deal with them with humor, empathy, respect and structure is a message that can make a difference for countless marriages and help couples become their own marriage refs.

PAIRS DTR, a free iPhone app available today from iTunes, helps couples, families, parents, and friends strengthen relationships. Developed by the nonprofit PAIRS Foundation, a leader in relationship skills training, PAIRS DTR for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad guides users through a practical, five-step communication exercise that can be posted on Facebook or shared by e-mail.

PAIRS team members meet weekly to share Appreciations, New Information, Puzzles, Concerns with Recommendations, and Wishes, Hopes and Dreams. This week, Sanford Rosenthal helped the team learn valuable life lessons that deepened our appreciation for our own resources and abilities and helped us better understand the challenges people with disabilities face daily.

Nearly 50 million Americans live with a disability. For many within this community, the challenges of sustaining relationships can be life and death matters.

While there is no one size fits all approach to reducing teen pregnancy, educational programs that focus on helping youngsters better express themselves through conversations with trusted confidants offer much promise. That’s especially so when confidants are parents and other significant adults who are able to model healthy relationship building skills.

How do we respond when tragedy afflicts loved ones who are instantly a world away? How can we answer when family and friends are trapped dying or dead within collapsed homes and buildings, babies and their mothers are crying out unanswered prayers for help amidst the chaotic ruins, thousands of corpses are bearing silent witness to helplessness in the face of tragic devastation, basic services that provide sustenance and life are eviscerated, and disease and desperation is rising each moment from the ruins? For the residents of Carrfour’s Little Haiti community, some answers were clear.

If any of these 12 statements sound familiar, discover how relationship skills training can help you step back from the brink of family breakdown and divorce to save your marriage and family: “I can never forgive you,” “I can’t talk to you,” “I just don’t love you anymore,” “I never really loved you,” “I’ll never be happy in this relationship,” I’m in love with someone else,” “I’m so angry at you,” “It’s too late,” “There’s no chemistry,” “You betrayed me,” “You’re not the person I married,” “You’ll never change.”

Politicians are not the only ones calling it quits this month. In divorce filings nationwide, an estimated 100,000 American couples will throw in the towel on their marriages in January. While those decisions will not receive the attention of this week’s political announcements, for their children especially, the lifelong impact will be far more significant.

For many, the most meaningful gift we can offer during this holiday season and throughout the year is the gift of listening with empathy, with our heart. Learning to listen with empathy to those closest to us is a gift that offers a lifetime of rewards.

PAIRS Daily Temperature Reading is a powerful exercise for deepening love and intimacy in relationships of all types and stages. Explore the five steps of the PAIRS DTR, integrate it into your life for 30 days, and watch the miracles unfold. Now available from iTunes for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

The understanding that children learn enduring life lessons much more from the actions of their parents, as opposed to their words (especially when their words and actions don’t match), has inspired generations of mothers and fathers to learn the skills and create environments that offer their children the greatest opportunity for happiness, fulfillment, and success.

While few beyond Tiger Woods and his wife likely will (or should) ever know the full truth to the claims now widely circulated in both the tabloid and popular press, it’s all too understandable how public icons can be led horribly astray, apparently blinding themselves in the process to the eventual price they’ll almost certainly pay. For those who are most accomplished and recognized, the decisions they make are often much more about a hunger for validation than a yearning for sex. Marriage education founded on emotional literacy is an important solution.

Stress and depression can ruin your holidays and hurt your health. Being realistic, planning ahead and seeking support can help ward off stress and depression.

Fort Lauderdale, FL (PRWEB) November 18, 2009 — PAIRS Foundation is offering a series of free one-hour webinars to help families learn five steps for creating joyful holidays and family celebrations. “Holidays can be a time of wonderful celebration, sharing and connection,” says Seth Eisenberg, PAIRS Foundation’s President and CEO. “But for many,” he says, [...]

Benefits of Healthy Marriages For Children and Youth (Marriage Statistics) Researchers have found many benefits for children and youth who are raised by parents in healthy marriages, compared to unhealthy marriages, including the following statistics: More likely to attend college Physically healthier Emotionally healthier Less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol Less likely to commit [...]