Marriage Straight Talk

Talking to Each Other

Most couples do not have a communication problem, they have a repeating conversation they never finish. These pages are about the mechanics: how to raise a hard thing, how to hear one, and how to stop the same argument from running your week.

• The Cold Drift and the Hot Fight: Two Faces of Resentment

  Different styles, same root cause: unspoken, unresolved expectations.

• How to Improve Communication in Marriage When the Kids Are Small

  A few concrete habits that fit inside the life you are actually living, no free evenings required.

• How to Stop Constant Arguing in Your Relationship

  You are not a bad couple, you are two exhausted people stuck in a groove. Here is how to climb out of it.

• Conflict resolution that actually holds.

  Most couples do not have a conflict problem, they have a repeating conflict problem. Here is what changes it.

• 8 Secrets of Great Relationship Texting

  The 8 texting habits that keep parents connected instead of quietly annoying each other all day.

• 10 Things That Work for Couples in Miami

  Ten concrete moves for Miami couples, anchored in the traffic, the family down the road, hurricane season and a city that eats the hours a marriage needs.

• The 7 Day Relationship Plan

  Seven days, seven specific moves, each under 20 minutes. What a week can honestly change, and what it cannot.

• Catty Behavior in a Relationship

  Why the tiny hostile remarks are the most reliable predictor of trouble I know, and the ledger that produces them.

• When Your Husband Is Constantly Critical

  Why constant criticism is a pattern rather than a personality, what your half of it actually is, and the line where it stops being a coaching conversation.

• How to Get Rid of Contempt for a Coworker

  A short, honest page. The mechanics of contempt, what shifts it at work, and where the deeper version of this conversation lives.

• How to Share Criticism With Your Partner

  The step by step way to bring up something hard with your partner so it lands as information instead of an attack.

• Passive Aggression in Marriage

  The sigh, the silence, the task that never gets done. Why it starts, why both of you are in it, and how to get it out of the house.

• Top 30 Marriage Coaching Questions

  The 30 questions I actually ask couples, in 6 groups, with the ground rules that stop the exercise turning into an argument.

• Criticism in Marriage Has Two Ends

  What criticism is actually asking for, the honest version for the person on each end, and the point where it stops being a marriage problem.

• My Husband Yells at Me

  How to end the exchange safely, understand why shutdown happens, and set a clear standard for returning to the conversation.