Maintaining a respectful and harmonious long-term relationship takes a lot of work. Communication struggles are typically the number one challenge those in a long-term partnership will face.  

Adrienne Alden is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She has worked for years with couples in relational distress. Her hope for therapy is to help clients see their part in troublesome relational patterns and to discover a new way of engaging.  She uses a collective approach with clients, combining attachment and psychodynamic theory and mindfulness.

Adrienne is experienced in working with communication struggles, high conflict couples, mismatched libidos, pelvic and genital pain disorders, premature ejaculation, delayed or difficulty with orgasm, erectile dysfunction, trauma recovery, life transitions, affair recovery, eating disorders, parenting adolescence, family of origin exploration, religious and spiritual exploration, gender role exploration, cultural influence, sexual orientation questioning.

In part 1 of our conversation with Adrienne we explore some of the common issues found in long-term partnerships and dive into various communication strategies couples can implement to strengthen their relationship.

Our discussion today included:

• The most prevalent myths about couples therapy

• The most common struggle in long-term relationships is communication

• The value of therapy is often in having an outsider looking in

• Communication struggles often come down to people being mean to each other

• The danger of making assumptions about your partner

• The need to grow with your partner 

• The value of thinking relationally and evaluating the interplay between people

• Exploring perpetual problems in relationships

• The need to be curious with one’s self and one’s partner

• Understanding that in every complaint, there is likely a valid need

• Reflective listening is a great first step to strengthening a relationship

• Acknowledging the pursuer and distancer types within a relationship

• Options for therapy if cost is an issue

In this Episode:

Open Path Collective - Affordable counseling services

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