The author speaks to couples and counselors dealing with the complicated emotional and spiritual problems generated by physical relationships that precede long-term commitment.
Do you ever wonder why marriage can seem like the end of intimacy and sexual desire instead of the beginning? Ever wonder why it was so hard to resist sex before marriage–and so easy to resist it now? If so, you’re not alone! Many married women genuinely want to feel more desire toward their husbands…and can’t figure out what went wrong. But there’s good news. In Kiss Me Again, Barbara Wilson shows how powerful “invisible bonds” from past relationships can cause heartache, disappointment, and distance for couples in the present. Then–with sensitivity, honesty, and hope–Barbara walks you step by step toward healing…and a rekindling of the closeness and passion with your husband that you really want. You don’t have to live any longer with confusion, disappointment, resentment, or shame. You can rediscover desire. You can say Wow! again.
I'm so busy and tired, how can I find time for sex? How can I go from mommy one minute to passionate lover the next? What medicines or natural herbs can I take to improve my libido? At some point in their lives, most women experience a decline in their sexual desire. Yet despite the vast number of books devoted to sex, surprisingly few focus on the problem of low libido. Fewer still offer any practical advice to the woman who has lost her sex drive and longs to find it again. Reclaiming Desire presents the holistic approach that gynecologist Andrew Goldstein and clinical psychologist Marianne Brandon—co-founders of the Sexual Wellness Center in Annapolis, Maryland—use to successfully treat women with low libido. Capitalizing on their combined medical and psychological expertise, they reveal how a complex set of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual factors—as well as specific life-changing events such as marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, divorce, and menopause—can affect female sex drive. Reading this book, women will come to understand that low libido isn't "all in their heads"—or all in their bodies, for that matter. The problem is real and it's diverse—but it's curable.
Ryan and Selena Frederick were newlyweds when they landed in Switzerland to pursue Selena's dream of training horses. Neither of them knew at the time that Ryan was living out a death sentence brought on by a worsening genetic heart defect. Soon it became clear he needed major surgery that could either save his life--or result in his death on the operating table. The young couple prepared for the worst. When Ryan survived, they both realized that they still had a future together. But the near loss changed the way they saw all that would lie ahead. They would live and love fiercely, fighting for each other and for a Christ-centered marriage, every step of the way. Fierce Marriage is their story, but more than that, it is a call for married couples to put God first in their relationship, to measure everything they do and say to each other against what Christ did for them, and to see marriage not just as a relationship they should try to keep healthy but also as one worth fighting for in every situation. With the gospel as their foundation, Ryan and Selena offer hope and practical help for common struggles in marriage, including communication problems, sexual frustration, financial stress, family tension, screen-time disconnection, and unrealistic expectations.
Emotions link our feelings, thoughts, and conditioning at multiple levels, but they may remain a largely untapped source of strength, freedom, and connection. The capacity to be intimate with all our emotions, teaches Robert Augustus Masters, is essential for creating fulfilling relationships and living with awareness, love, and integrity. With Emotional Intimacy, this respected therapist and author invites us to explore: How to deepen our emotional literacy and become intimate with all our emotionsThe nature of emotional disconnection and what to do about itHow to identify our emotions, fully experience them, and skillfully express themIlluminating, resolving, and healing old emotional woundsGender differences in emotional intimacy and expressionSteps for bringing greater emotional intimacy and depth into our relationshipsIn-depth guidance for those facing depression, anxiety, and shameWhy "blowing off steam" may make us feel worse, and the nature of healthy catharsisThe difference between anger and aggression, shame and guilt, jealousy and envyIndividual chapters for fully engaging with fear, anger, joy, jealousy, shame, grief, guilt, awe, and the full spectrum of our emotions There are no negative or unwholesome emotions—only negative or harmful things we do with them. Through real life examples, exercises, and an abundance of key insights, Masters provides a lucid guide for reclaiming our emotions, relating to them skillfully, and turning them into allies—to enrich and deepen our lives.
A practical step‑by‑step methodology for nurturing and sustaining our intimate relationships through first focusing on self, extending to partners, and the world We can apply the law of attraction, love languages, and every hack in the world. We can do all the yoga, spa days, workshops, and retreats we can make time for. But without an underpinning of intimacy, our experience of ourselves is soft and dreamy and lacks the kind of specificity necessary to truly know ourselves through and through. With intimacy as the foundational principle of our existence, we can build a life based on what we truly need, not what have been told we need, think we need, or what we think we should need. No matter who you are and who you like to have sex with, my intention is to arm you with a new toolkit and consciousness for cultivating the deeply connected relationships you desire and the life you deserve. Zoe Kors draws on her experience as an intimacy coach, workshop leader and sex and relationships writer, sharing her powerful--and practical--step‑by‑step methodology for nurturing and sustaining our intimate relationships over time. It addresses the essential truth that is almost universally missed in discussions of sex and intimacy: We can meet each other only to the extent that we can meet ourselves. Kors guides the reader on a five‑part journey through nine areas of opportunity for deepening intimacy with themselves, their partner, and their world, inviting them to embrace emotional, physical, and energetic self‑mastery, which is required to skillfully relate with others. Voice-driven, accessible--with the right amount of tough love--Radical Intimacy rewrites the rules (and The Rules) by: Introducing the concept of "Energetic Intimacy" as a real thing. I talk about concepts like presence and energy, in a way that is accessible and makes sense to the mainstream market (not woo-woo!) Defining and busting "The Attachment Myth"--my term for the rampant and erroneous belief that women emotionally attach to their sexual partners--rewriting the common narrative, giving women freedom and agency to own their embodied sexuality without guilt or shame. Shifting the vocabulary around sex and intimacy to feel real, organic, and unapologetic by speaking with ease and confidence about sex and sexuality--no euphemisms, no air quotes, no beating around the bush (so to speak). Telling the truth that sex is not effortless. Great sex is cultivated over time through practice. Evangelizing intimacy as an ongoing and life-altering practice that happens not just between two people, but on an individual level first. Dismantling porn-culture's stronghold on the misperception of women's bodies and sexuality so that we may respect, revere, and fall love with women (and ourselves) for the magical and varied creatures we are.
This book provides a long-overdue account of online technology and its impact on the work and lifestyles of professional employees. It moves between the offices and homes of workers in the knew "knowledge" economy to provide intimate insight into the personal, family, and wider social tensions emerging in today’s rapidly changing work environment. Drawing on her extensive research, Gregg shows that new media technologies encourage and exacerbate an older tendency among salaried professionals to put work at the heart of daily concerns, often at the expense of other sources of intimacy and fulfillment. New media technologies from mobile phones to laptops and tablet computers, have been marketed as devices that give us the freedom to work where we want, when we want, but little attention has been paid to the consequences of this shift, which has seen work move out of the office and into cafés, trains, living rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms. This professional "presence bleed" leads to work concerns impinging on the personal lives of employees in new and unforseen ways. This groundbreaking book explores how aspiring and established professionals each try to cope with the unprecedented intimacy of technologically-mediated work, and how its seductions seem poised to triumph over the few remaining relationships that may stand in its way.
This text provides a groundbreaking look at sexual instincts and offers a clinical psychologist's and sex therapist's insights and solutions to the challenges of monogamous relationships. Monogamous relationships are firmly embedded in the framework of our society, and yet the divorce rate and common failures of intimacy in long-term relationships challenges the efficacy of this paradigm. Oddly, the concept of monogamy has been virtually ignored by mental health professionals, while anthropologists, sociologists, biologists, and zoologists have researched and explored the topic. Monogamy: The Untold Story presents not only the scientific research about the challenges of monogamy, but also the practical solutions to overcome them. In part one, the author explores sexual instincts and monogamy from an anthropological, biological, psychological, and social perspective. Part two offers men and women a step-by-step guide to enhancing passion and strengthening their intimate bond by capitalizing on their natural sexual instincts.
Sexual dysfunction in marriage is a big topic that no one wants to talk about and, while there are many long volumes on sex and intimacy, there are no books that were written with the express purpose of assisting couples in conversing about their sex lives. This book fills a much-needed void that is, perhaps, most appreciated by the counselors and pastors trying to facilitate conversation between a husband and wife about the more difficult sexual issues. In their own practices, Dr. Hague and Mr. Smith individually sought a resource that would help their patients have meaningful discussions about sex. When they conversed about mutual patients and how best to assist them, they found no publication that approached difficult subjects with the goal of opening lines of communication between husband and wife. It was out of a desire to assist their patients that this book was written. www.BoldSpeak.net Neil and Dr. Melissa Hague have a passion for helping others to promote healthy marriages and families. Through her obstetrics and gynecological practice, Dr. Hague has the unique opportunity to see the frustration and strife that sexual difficulty can cause for women and their marriages. Communicating about the underlying issue or condition is paramount to resolving sexual dysfunction in marriage. Dr. Hague has helped many women, their husbands and their marriages, and based on these experiences she established a sexual dysfunction clinic in her medical practice. Dr. Hague and her husband sense a great need to address the often unspoken topic of sexual issues and co-wrote Start Talking: Intimacy to help couples talk about their sex lives as a vital and important part of a healthy marriage. James and Julie Smith have a heart for counseling couples to help them navigate issues that often arise in every marriage. James, a licensed marriage and family therapist, sees sexual issues in marriage far too often and understands why couples would have a hard time starting the conversation about their sex lives. While many concerns can arise in marriage, sex is deceptively often a cause of a number of those other issues; James co-wrote Start Talking: Intimacy as a resource for his patients and other couples to sort through what is often an underlying problem thereby leading to quality enhancement in other aspects of marriage."