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How Assertiveness Improves Relationships: Beyond The Couch Podcast
In order to understand what assertiveness is, I find that it's helpful to first identify what it isn't, as there are many misconceptions about it: it's not being pushy, aggressive, or demanding. It also doesn't just mean speaking your mind or telling people what you think. Instead, assertiveness refers to reflecting on your emotional history, understanding and managing your feeling, then expressing yourself in a way that will strengthen your relationships. It's a way of articulating what you believe while also allowing room for differences. Overall, assertiveness is a way of being your true self while also becoming closer to others.
How to Talk to Your Kids About Digital Safety
Sometimes it seems like the more your child grows, the more of a challenge it is to keep them safe. Today’s digital age has presented a host of issues, from selfies to sexting to cyberbullying, that previous generations of parents never even had to think of—let alone address with their children.
Dividing Household Labor in Families Q&A: Good Things Utah
To talk about how families can better share the load of family chores and unpaid work, we took to social media to see what our viewers' thought about these issues. Here are a few questions we received:
How to Identify and Heal From Manipulative Relationships
Manipulation is an extremely broad topic, and it can be difficult to even know where to begin the conversation. To start, a manipulative relationship is one in which an individual seeks to control or use another person; to get him/her to do something or think a certain way by being controlling and dominating.
How to Let Go of Labels: Studio 5
Have you ever noticed how much we label each other? Particularly as women, we tend to put each other in boxes: there's the Pinterest mom, the Amazon-Prime mom, the athlete mom, the working mom, the stay-at-home mom, and the list goes on. In life, we need to organize things to make sense of them in our brains, but it can be problematic when we try to categorize people as well. Human beings are multi-dimensional, and labels, even positive ones ("the pretty one," or "the smart one"), can be limiting. Here are some strategies to move beyond this and see each other as really people:
Recognizing and Healing from Manipulative Relationships: Art of Connection
I recently sat down with Baya Voce, host of The Art of connection, to talk about narcissism, sociopathy, pathological lying, gaslighting and so much more. The biggest take-home message is that anyone can find themselves in a manipulative relationship, and you can heal.
3 Ways to Fight Fair: Good Things Utah
Every significant relationship has times of disagreement and disconnection. Differences are a sign that your relationship is healthy and that both people feel free to bring their authentic selves.
How Expressing Difference Brings Connection
How is differentiation of self related to assertiveness? When a woman asserts herself, she is differentiating her needs, thoughts, feelings, or wants from another person. She is essentially saying, “I’m think something different than you. I have other feelings than you do. I’m not you.” True assertiveness, as I define it, means that this is done in a way that’s not alienating or rude but still clearly makes those differences known.
Empathy: The Secret Sauce of Happy Marriages
As many of us have experienced, even burning love can cool down. By understanding what empathy is and how to demonstrate it in your love relationships, you can heal wounds and create closer bonds.
Is It Ever OK to Lie to Your Partner?
Is honesty always the best policy? In a recent study, 70 percent of us said we value honesty over pretty much everything else in a relationship. I recently sat down with news correspondent Nicea DeGearing of KUTV 4 News to share thoughts on the importance of honesty in intimate relationships.
My Response: When I Became a Mother, Patriarchy Let Me Down
This post is in response to the Huff Post article “When I became a mother, feminism let me down” by Samantha Johnson. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/samantha-johnson/when-i-became-a-mother-feminism-let-me-down/We are functioning in a society that pretends that men aren't going to grow up to be fathers.Patriarchy denies that caring and connection with other people are vital for the well-being of humanity, including men.
Mormon Mom Asks "How Do I Respond to My 3 Yr Old Masturbating?"
Ask Dr. Julie Hanks: "When my son was just 2 I found him humping his hands just after a nap. I was shocked but knew enough about the negative effects of shaming that I didn't freak out or scold him. I spent the next year just kindly distracting him away from self pleasuring. When I'd find him (always after waking up) I'd avoid saying anything in words because I didn't know WHAT to say that would be appropriate and positive."
Love & Gender Equality at Home: Sunstone Symposium Audio
Listen to Dr. Julie Hanks' Sunstone presentation. Early relationship patterns lay the framework for our identity development, social interactions, and assumptions about others. If gender equality is to be achieved within Mormon culture and theology, it must first be modeled in family relationships. Cultural Transformation Theory provides a framework for moving from a domination model that values “masculine” over “feminine” to a partnership model where relationships are based on connection and equality.