Tag Archives: NWA Marriage & Family Therapy

Healthy Relationships

Building and maintaining healthy relationships is a journey that requires effort, patience, and commitment, to a likeminded individual. Whether you’re in a romantic partnership, a friendship, or a family relationship, the following tips can help you establish and nurture healthy connections.

Effective communication is key to any healthy relationship. This means being open and honest with your partner or friend, expressing your needs and concerns in a respectful manner, and actively listening to their perspective. Communication also involves being mindful of your tone and body language and avoiding behaviors that might be considered negative.

Trust is another essential element of healthy relationships. This involves being reliable, consistent, and transparent in your actions, and respecting your partner’s boundaries and privacy. Trust also means being vulnerable and sharing your thoughts and feelings with your partner and being supportive of them in kind.

Healthy relationships also require a willingness to compromise and work through conflicts. This means acknowledging and addressing issues when they arise, and seeking out solutions that work for both parties. It also involves being patient and empathetic and understanding that relationships are not always perfect or easy.

Finally, self-care is crucial for maintaining healthy relationships. This means taking care of your own physical and emotional needs, setting boundaries to protect your time and energy, and prioritizing activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. When you take care of yourself, you are better equipped to show up as your “best self” in your relationships.

Please call NWA Marriage Family Therapy at 479-225-0055 Office V. M. to make a 60 min. appointment. Offering an affordable sliding scale fee for clients who live in the NWA area or anywhere in Arkansas. Weekends are available..

Thank You.

Enhancing Relationship Tips

These enhancing relationship tips may help you trouble shoot and avoid relationship confrontations in healthy well attached relationships. These tips sound simple and commonsensical enough and they are.

The challenging thing for most couples is to implement them regularly and to take timely action. Small steps that are consistent and regular are more effective than large unfulfilled promises. So keep working on developing your skills and keep your love active.

Tip 1) Fulfill any communication agreements you have made if you have a disagreement. For example, agreements to take time outs, cooling off periods, or other prior de-escalation rules you have made. When conflict heats up sticking to these agreements is very important.

Tip 2) Share the intentions of your actions. Actions can be better understood by your partner or accepted, if the intentions are clearly explained beforehand to the other person. Assume that your partner has good intentions. (Note: only in safe, securely attached relationships).

Tip 3) Follow the golden rule, it truly is golden. Show your authentic appreciation, regularly through words and actions, that connect and make sense to your partner.

Hopefully your actions will be noticed and appreciated, and your partner will reciprocate their appreciations with time. These enhancing relationship tip skills take practice, so stay consistent.

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NWA Marriage & Family Therapy has been serving the NWA for a decade and in the last two years, I have been serving couples at your convenience. electronically anywhere in Arkansas.

If you would like a couple’s session to talk about your specific situation, as a couple or on your own, please give me a call anytime. Leave an office voice mail message at (479) 225-0055 (no text).

Thank You

Valentine’s Day Intimacy Fears?

Valentine’s Day is almost here. For some people this day brings about fears around intimacy. How soon is too soon to celebrate Valentines Day as a “couple”? Maybe just celebrate as friends? lovers? or celebrate love in general?

Do you ever think, “I want to be close, but just how close is it comfortable for me? ”

Are you comfortable with the idea of being close and staying close? Are you comfortable with the idea with giving as well as receiving over a Longterm relationship? Will you be testing your love often? How comfortable are you with commitment? If you move forward into a relationship, will you feel obligated, trapped or controlled? Will you feel like you will be losing your freedom or a part of you?

Exploring these questions is important for you to know where you are as far as desiring and maintaining long term intimacy.

Finally, knowing where your lover is as far as their intimacy abilities? Are they open and available to being intimate? Are they willing, capable and as vested as you? Are you well matched as far as your expectations and abilities? It’s good to think about these things on your own, as well as talking together.

There can be so many ways to celebrate and to create a meaningful intimate relationship on Valentine’s Day, as well as other types of friendships. Taking the opportunity and time to celebrate love in its many forms, is a day well spent.

So…..Happy Valentines Day!

Please call NWA Marriage & Family Therapy at 479-225-0055 to schedule an online appointment, if you would like to talk further.

Thank you.

Gaslighting the 2022 word of the year

NWA Marriage and Family Therapy serving all of Arkansas online.

Gaslighting is a term that came from the 1940’s psychological thriller movie titled “Gaslight”. View for free link, You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYmtzaHwCKo It is well worth a watch, and hold up many years later.

Today “To gaslight” is an active verb that has come into our modern speech. Used in terms of relationships one can say “Relationship Gaslighting” to mean when one person in a relationship intentionally distorts their partner’s perception of reality for their own manipulative advantage.

Relationship gaslighting can manifest in many ways. Signs to notice are when you begin to question your own judgement, values or perceptions and your own sense of reality. Oftentimes, fault will be assigned to you at a time when you attempt to question explanations or when you feel most vulnerable or powerless from the confusion fallout and insecurity that gaslighting eventually causes.

Questioning to attempt to clarify may bring on statements that you are too sensitive, jealous or overall unworthy in various ways. You then begin to feel isolated and confused and begin doubting yourself. Developing with time a sinking feeling at the pit of your gut. This feeling is a good red flag to honor.

To balance this discomfort, many people try to talk themselves out of their feelings with positive self-talk. They may change their own behavior to try harder to accommodate for their partner’s gaslighting, in hopes of being a more supportive partner and to improve and regain trust in their relationship. Usually, these actions are not effective and the gaslighting will continue.

People are now using “gaslighting” very often and sometimes inappropriately. Enduring continued gaslighting is unhealthy and will emotionally unbalance you. The question now becomes what are real and genuine relationship difficulties and what is manipulative relationship gaslighting?

As a Marriage and Family Therapists, I have seen both and have helped individuals and couples explore the different angles and nuances so they can see clearly for themselves.

Call NWA Marriage and Family Therapy to discuss a counseling appointment. Offering sliding scale fee at your convenience. Serving clients virtually anywhere in Arkansas.

Office voice mail 479-225-0055. Thank you.

Quote “3 Classes of People”

“There are three classes of people;

Those who see.

Those whos see, when they are shown.

Those who do not see”.

-Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

This is an interesting quote to ponder. I was wondering how this could be applied to therapy in general. I would say all three types come to therapy at some point for different reasons. Those who see, may struggle with their knowingness, unable to feel others really understand, or they struggle when sharing their sights. Those who see, when they are shown often have many “aha” moments. Suddenly things begin to make sense to them in a way unlike before. And then there are those who do not see. They usually visit for a while, with no ability for insight or change. Non seers, are either unwilling or simply just unable to see. They for the most part, remain the same.

All three types vary in their own personal abilities and mingle equally in a variety of socioeconomic and ethnicity groups.

This quote offers yet another model for “seeing” the world.

Marriage and Couples Counseling

Couples therapy today is more accepted than ever before. Making decisions about your long term relationship or marriage without the benefit of marital therapy is now widely seen as somehow thoughtless or unwise. Many couples now make a last-ditch effort to resolve their issues by seeing a Marriage and Family Therapists, or LMFT.

Most models of therapy focus mostly on individual work and most therapists are trained with the idea of treating one person, not the complexities that a couple brings. Not withstanding this fact, about 70 percent of therapists work with couples.

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist have couples training and experience that individual therapists often lack. Thus the popularity in the last decade of marriage therapy, and having support and a better understanding of issues that develop in relationships.

NWA Marriage and Family Therapy works with many couples and is here to serve you explore your relationship issues. Please call 479-225-0055 to ask any questions or to make an appointment, and please leave a voice mail. Thank you.

COVID-19, CDC guidelines, Online and Telephone Counseling Available

Hope everyone is paying attention to the COVID-19 situation. Making the necessary adaptations to get through this is unusual time is important.

Asking clients to please reschedule their appointments if the do not feel well, even if its last minute. If you have been traveling please self quarantine for 14 days upon your return as recommended by the CDC. See the CDC link below for information and protocols for COVID-19.

In short term I have been rerouting clients through a side door thus avoiding any lobby contact. Allowing 6 feet of space between myself and my clients. No longer shaking hands. Ventilating office, wiping down doorknobs, telephones, tables and anything touched, by wiping down surfaces after use. Having hand sanitizer and tissue readily available at the work place as well. Small changes we can all do.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/index.html

Make common sense changes and getting the most current information, so everyone can stay as safe as possible, These small changes have been helpful to get by up to now.

For the duration of this epidemic, NWA Marriage and Family Therapy will be to transitioning my current office clients and any future new ones to an online video format or telephone depending on the clients preference and technological abilities within the next few days.

This change will not be forever, since face to face counseling is still the gold standard for counseling, in my opinion. This on line/telephone format will just be for the duration of this epidemic. Remember, this too shall pass.

I appreciate your cooperation to this temporary on line transition to let us all get though this ordeal safely. NWA Marriage and Family Therapy will now be exclusively through on line or telephone sessions. I am licensed by the State of Arkansas to use any and all types of Technologically Assisted therapy. I appreciate your patience during this time in stream lining this process.

Perseverance, Prudence, Patience.

Thank you all. Please call NWA Marriage & Family Therapy for 479-225-0055 for on line appointment and leave voice message.

Relationships are important

Relationships are important in your life.

If the relationships in your life are healthy they can allow you to feel good about your self, be more creative, feel loved and have an over all sense of wellness from day to day that actually makes for better over all health. Making an investment in your relationship is worthwhile.

Please call NWA Marriage and Family Therapy at 479-225-0055. Offices in Fayetteville and Bella Vista, with hours that accommodate any schedule. I would be happy to answer your questions. Serving, the Fayetteville, Springdale, Centerton, Rogers, Bentonville, Bella Vista areas.

New Years Tribute, NWA Marriage & Family Therapy

Happy New Year’s 2019. Reflecting on 2018 I was thinking some times it is good to take a look back to remember those folks who lived and came before us. Way before us. We are here because they survived and had the strength to carry on even in very difficult circumstances, often facing situations that in their time seemed impossible to overcome or endure. We as people, are stronger and more resilient than we believe to face our situations.

Please call NWA Marriage & Family Therapy @ 479-225-0055 to set an appointment for couples or individual counseling, at your convenience. If you need my services, in Fayetteville, Bella Vista, or Ft. Smith.please leave a voice message and I will call back.

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy 2019 New Year’s to all as we head forward.

Carmen