In a recent blog post I introduced the five stage of marital satisfaction: enchantment, disillusionment, obligation, friendship and mature love. In this post I want to talk about four toxic relationship patterns that prevent you from moving forward from disillusionment or obligation to friendship and love. These four patterns come from marriage research at the […]

Conflict is inevitable. No surprise. The question is how we resolve conflict. The most emotionally intelligent people in any field or walk of life understand conflict management. They don’t deal with conflict management by retreating or sweeping it under the rug, nor by coming off as aggressive and imposing their will on others. They learn […]

Do you know how to handle conflict when… You’re not able to sleep due to a neighbor’s late-night music or barking dog? Your boss wants you to work overtime this weekend when you’ve planned a big outing with your family? You and your partner have totally different opinions when it comes to a major life […]

A and B gossip about C behind her back, then compliment her to her face.  D tries to form an alliance with E, who is secretly allied with both A and L and F and M.  F tells M what E told him, but with just a little twist, while E confesses to B that […]