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Ask Ellyn #1:
I find conflict-avoidant couples more challenging than hostile couples. At least the angry couples have a lot of energy. How do you create change with conflict-avoidant partners?
… Read more...Conflict Avoidant CoupleHow do you create change with conflict-avoidant partners?
Ask Ellyn #1:
I find conflict-avoidant couples more challenging than hostile couples. At least the angry couples have a lot of energy. How do you create change with conflict-avoidant partners?
… Read more...Building Effective Collaboration with a Highly Anxious Client A common scenario that many of us see in our practices is the over-functioning wife with the anxious-avoidant husband. He is a highly anxious procrastinator and is often not accountable for what he says he will do.… Read more...Shifting Relationship Impasses, Part Four Translating Internal Conflicts as an Emotional Bridge
Before sharing the final part of this transcript from a session on shifting relationship impasses, I want to answer the questions I asked you last month.
What are some of the wife’s struggles?
As I listened to the wife, I was aware that she drives herself very hard. She has a lot of expectations of perfection. She must do all her tasks well. It is rare she feels any break from multiple responsibilities and from being parental at home. Performance dominates her life.
How is the husband doing with my assists?
Her husband is struggling in this dialogue.… Read more...Conflict Avoidance: Shifting Relationship Impasses, Part 3
Helping partners develop clearer separation between self and other
This is the third part of a series in which I have shared sections of a session on shifting relationship impasses in a couple with conflict avoidance and encouraged comments and questions from readers. Thank you to those of you who have participated in our dialog on the blog.
In this portion of the session, because the wife has taken more of a risk, I decide to stay with helping her express more while simultaneously seeing if her husband can get any separation from her.
… Read more...Conflict Avoidance: Shifting Relationship Impasses, Part 1About a year ago, I wrote a series of newsletters dissecting one session with a particular couple. It seemed to motivate readers to exchange ideas on the blog. I’d like to revisit that format and ask you to think developmentally along with me, this time about shifting relationship impasses in a couple with the pattern of conflict avoidance.… Read more...Overcoming Passivity and Passive-Aggressive Behavior …in the Early Stages of Therapy
Couples therapy has numerous challenges in the early sessions depending on the type of presenting problem. Our next few newsletters will focus on some unique challenges and what to do about them, beginning with passive behavior and passive-aggressive behavior.
A common pattern of highly distressed relationships is each partner wants the other to change first. The complaining partner wants massive personality changes. The “request” is more or less stated as a demand or accusation, with no awareness of how much is being requested.
When this happens, the pressure is on either you or the partner to do something to relieve the distress of the complainer.… Read more...Challenging Communication with your Conflict Avoidant Couples
About two weeks ago late on a Monday afternoon, I sat in my office listening to a couple describe twenty years of conflict avoidance and intimacy avoidance. Their communication was packed with vague unspecified references and their reported behavior was overflowing with examples of passivity.
I thought, “This is going to be a challenging session. Do I have the energy for it? Am I up for the task? Will I be able to have an impact, to make a difference?”
Some couples work very hard to avoid any intensity. They seek stability, security, and harmony. I know from experience that they do not change from insight.… Read more... Conflict avoidance comes in many forms.
Conflict avoidance comes in many forms. Do you recognize these?
1. Some couples avoid so many issues that you feel enormous tension just sitting in the room with them. For years they have shied away from discussing any issues that are potentially high-conflict.
2. These friendly conflict avoiders are warm, gracious and engaging. They just can’t bring any depth into their conversations. In fact, their shadow side is often completely denied. To avoid shame or humiliation, they won’t acknowledge negative feelings or impulses.
3. Passive-aggressive partners rarely set positive goals and won’t initiate much positive action.… Read more... Learning to Work With Conflict-Avoidant Couples
This month we will explore some of the dynamics and relevant issues with the conflict-avoidant couple. These couples look deceptively easy when they first present for therapy. They are often friendly and kind, and there is no obvious tension. In fact, that is a primary source of the difficulty. There is no tension! Frequently, they present with the complaint of “no passion.”Conflict avoidant couples often have spent years being superficially nice to one another. They may even be revered by friends and family for “being the perfect couple.” They have been nice for so long that the partners no longer know what they think or feel as individuals.… Read more... Recognizing Beliefs that Foster Marital Disillusionment
Partners meet. They fall in love and everything is wonderful – until within a year or two when they get mugged by the realities of daily life. Then comes the inevitable disillusionment. The partners don't conform to each others' fantasies and their flaws become more visible. This disillusionment phase is ripe for wrenching growth and for productive movement into the stage of differentiation.However, instead of growing in ways that are required to manage this painful disillusionment, many partners never progress. Instead of making the transition beyond symbiosis, they get entrenched in circular nonproductive patterns.… Read more... |
