The reason this jumped out of me was because after an exciting two days of tracking a few leading blogs about couples counseling and relationships, and even reading Oprah magazine, I came to the conclusion that an awful lot is being written about very little. Remember I’m over 50 now, so I’m permitted to crustily announce to anyone within earshot, or cyber-shot, that the world is becoming depressingly shallow. And if studying 79 students is enough evidence to pronounce that depth is the traveling companion of bliss, then misery loves company as long as it doesn’t challenge its brain cells too much.

This seems to be the point in my blogging career when I need to admit that I live in the same world as one Jerry Seinfeld, formerly knife sharp observer of human foibles, who has now turned the spectacle of marital conflict into public entertainment which reminds me of the moral murkiness of spending saturday afternoon watching gladiators kill each other in the Colliseum. Seinfeld is fairly clear about the entertainment value of his TV show The Marriage Ref. “This is not a therapy show, it’s a comedy show. After nine years of marriage, I have discovered that the comedic potential of this subject is quite rich.” Couples counseling as comedy. At least they walk away physically unharmed.

Scott Stanley pointed out that much of the research published recently appears to be reaching completely different conclusions. Just last week I wrote a blog post “Is Marriage bad for Couples Therapists” about British survey that showed how cohabitation with the arch-enemy of long-term relationships, and pointing out the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) didn’t necessarily agree. Then just yesterday the CDC released a report picked by USA today: “Cohabiting has little effect on couple’s success in marriage”.

Here are some stunning facts from a study from the Jubilee Center, a UK-based Christian organization, who says that married parents are nearly 10 times more likely to stay together than un-married parents.

My wife follows my blog, and asked me the other day if I felt we needed relationship help. “It sure sounds it from the way you write your posts” she said. “Is everything OK?”

Imago Dialogue for couples is something quite specific and quite structured. At least, its best for it to be structured when you are just learning it, and whenever the subject is hard. Oh! We’re talking about the field of intimate relationships- the subject has a tendency to be quite tricky, don’t you find?!

Weiner travelled to the world’s happiest places and told WorldHum that “Many countries around the world seem to grasp this notion that happiness is relational—that we derive much of our joy from our connections to other people

The Michelangelo phenomenon views each of us like a block of marble, and inside is our ideal self, just waiting to be fully revealed. If you recall Michelangelo said that the sculpture already existed inside the marble, and his job was just to make it visible. Like Michelangelo, our partners can help shape us so that it is this ideal self that emerges in all its fullness and aliveness. That’s interesting to me because its another way of looking at the goals of Imago marriage counseling

The latest Marriage Advice from France is that infidelity may help your marriage. In Imago we love to consider all perspectives, so let’s take a moment to look at what France’s leading psychologist Maryse Vaillant is saying.

Science supports relationship help as a way to strengthen marriages

Marriage Advice, as Elizabeth Weil notes in the New York Times is usually sought out by people who feel they need relationship help.   Many marriage counselors wish that couples would come and see them well before things turn nasty.  John Gottman’s research shows that most us are prepared to put up with six years of anguish before [...]