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The Only Way Out Is Through: Understanding and Embracing Relationship Fears
Many of our Agape articles embody a theme of embracing our core relationship fears and learning how to tolerate the undesirable emotions that come with them. In order to move from self-judgment toward self-compassion, it’s important to understand our core fears, their origin, and how they impact our thoughts, feelings and relationships. This means we have to move toward the fear rather than avoid it. Once we acknowledge a relationship fear and move towards it, the fear begins to lose the power that it has over us. Poet Robert Frost has quoted “The only way out is through.” This is so true! A great resource to understanding core fears is…
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Bridge to Wholeness | Volume 2 Issue 5 May 2015
Welcome to the May 2015 Issue of the Agape newsletter, Bridge to Wholeness! Our monthly newsletter is the best way for you to keep up with what is going on around Agape, with events and updates, and articles written by our counselors. We hope it will help bring you a little bit closer to emotional, mental, and spiritual wholeness! In this issue (click to read individual articles): Loving Young Adults Through Transition by Elizabeth Nimmo, MA, LPC Ch Ch Ch Changes by Darrell Provinse, MA, LPC, NCC Intimate Communication: Let’s Talk About Sex by Kathyrn Manley, MS, LPC, CST Healthy Playtime for Developing Kids by Carolyn Knarr, MSW, LCSW Upcoming Group Counseling… Click…
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Intimate Communication: Let’s Talk About Sex
When a couple is in a long-term monogamous relationship, symptoms affecting sexuality as the result of medical issues, chronic illness or disability, or even natural aging, are inevitable. Naturally, as we pass through life, our bodies experience physiological changes which affect our sexual functioning. Physiological changes might include pregnancy and nursing, coronary artery disease, cancer treatments, arthritis and chronic pain, injuries, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, aging, prostate problems or autoimmune disorders. Learning how to navigate through these changes by means of communication and compassion can be helpful for the sexual relationship. Medical issues, chronic illness, disability and aging are all capable of affecting the sexual relationship and can create symptoms that…
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New Beginnings: Rebuilding and Repairing Relationships
Couples frequently come to my office with relational injuries, wondering if their marriage can be repaired. Individuals and couples may feel there has been such damage and destruction in the relationship that any hope of making amends, repairing the damage, is hopeless. Restoration and redemption in relationships is available through Christ. As we enter this new year, I am led to encourage Agape readers that in Christ, all things are possible. If you are having trouble communicating with your partner, especially during the process of healing, you may find that learning new patterns of communication can be difficult. According to psychologist and researcher John Gottman, repairing relationships during and after…
Marriage, Family, & Individual Counseling | St Louis MO
