De-escalation and emotional flooding

In the previous post I wrote some guidelines and foundations to communication. Psychologist John Gottman, founder of the Gottman Institute, identifies criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling as the “four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” which will...

Communication Foundations

Many clients, whether individuals, parents, couples and multiple-partner relationships come into treatment wanting to improve communication. They are either experiencing frequent conflict, not feeling heard and don’t feel equipped to resolve conflict nor...

Relationship Therapy and Communication

When couples and multi-partner relationships come to my office for therapy the most common reasons or conflicts are associated with difficulties with communicating, soothing and listening. There are primary communication themes and resolutions that we discuss and here...

Mindfulness and anger

A lot of the people I work with feel that they didn’t learn how to soothe their feelings, express their feelings and have a constructive relationship to their feelings. I find this particularly true when it comes to anger. A theme I’ve also seen is that...