Navigating Mental Illness in Marriage: Tips for Building Resilience Together
Marriage is often seen as a journey filled with love, companionship, and shared dreams. However, the reality is that every relationship faces its own set of challenges, and for some couples, navigating the complexities of mental illness can add an extra layer of difficulty.
Navigating the Schoolyard - A Parent's Guide to Recognizing and Addressing Bullying
If your child discloses that they are being bullied, listening attentively, validating their feelings, and taking appropriate action is essential. Seek support from teachers, school administrators, or counselors to address the issue effectively. Bullying should never be tolerated, and collaboration between parents and the school is vital to creating a safe environment for every child.
Navigating Marriage with an Extra Special Twist
We will eventually encounter individuals with unique abilities and challenges in every community, workplace, school, or church. The CDC reports that 1 in 4 adults in the United States have some form of disability.
Even with these statistics, we do not expect to be impacted by a disability in our unborn child’s life.
As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I did not expect Noah’s Down Syndrome diagnosis to challenge our marriage as much as it did.
Through community support and working hand in hand with my husband, I want to share three common challenges couples face in similar situations and discover three actionable changes that can fortify their marriage.
Understanding Anger: Expressing Our Anger Can Help Our Relationship
Anger is a natural emotion that arises when things don’t go how we want or when our needs are unmet. Anger can rise up in us quickly, and we react in ways that we often later regret. It’s how we express our anger, though, that makes a world of difference in how we accomplish our goals.
3 Major Benefits to Premarital Counseling
In a world that is constantly focused on having the most perfect wedding day, with every last detail discussed and planned for, let’s shift our focus on having the healthiest, most joy-filled marriage through intentional connection and shared purpose.
Myths and Tips to Navigate Difficult Marriage Conversations
Managing difficult conversations in a relationship can be very challenging. It can be very easy to fight for our way at the expense of our partner’s needs and emotions.
How the Mirror Neurons in Your Brain Can Help You Connect More With Others
The mirror neuron also helps us interpret the action and the intent behind it.
The Biggest Mistake People Make After They Forgive… and What to do Instead
Too many people think that when you forgive, it means the relationship should just go back to the way it was.
But that’s not always a healthy choice.
To have the relationships we want, we need to learn the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and know when it’s appropriate (and when it’s not) to reconcile.
Forgiveness is Hard… and Healthy
Forgiveness is hard. When we forgive quickly, we can enjoy life, be more relaxed, and feel freer. Make forgiveness a regular habit.
5 Tips from a Therapist that Adult Children Can Use to Improve Their Relationship with Their Parents
Conversations about adult children and their parents have been making headlines recently. Some people are wondering whether therapy encourages adult children to distance themselves from their families.
At Light the Way Counseling Center, we believe effective therapy isn't about creating division—it's about helping people build healthier relationships whenever it is safe and possible.
Every family has conflict. Every family experiences misunderstandings. While some relationships require firm boundaries or even distance for safety, many strained relationships can improve through honest communication, greater understanding, emotional healing, and intentional effort from both parents and adult children.
5 Tips to Help Parents and Their Adult Children Improve their Relationship: What Good Therapy Really Encourages
Relationships are hard. As your child grows and matures the changes you see are challenging. As a parent, changes are hard. Allow yourself to mourn the losses of childhood while embracing the new adventures your adult child experiences
Parenting is Heart Work
When we decided to bring children into the world, we did not receive an instruction manual. We had no guidebook to teach us how to care for and raise that child and how to face the challenges parenthood entails. As parents, we are called to provide for all our children’s basic needs, even those needs that are not visible to the naked eye.