Posts Tagged ‘communication’

Breaking Down the Breakdowns

September 2, 2009

Like a complex machine with a lot of moving parts, communication can break down for many reasons. Each of these reasons has a remedy, but you have to know enough about the machine and its parts to spot the problem and get some glimmer of an idea how to fix it.

I’m afraid to tell you, we never talk anymore

November 17, 2008

Time and again I have had a distraught husband or wife tell me that they no longer communicate with their partners. What they mean is that they no longer take the time to share their hopes and fears, their joys and their frustrations. Two days ago Beverley sat in my study and cried, because after [...]

Couple Barriers to Gut-level Communication

November 17, 2008

If it is true that 86% of broken marriages fail because of a lack of intimate communication, why don’t we all do something about it? Why don’t we all make a greater effort to communicate with each other at a level that would deepen our relationship? The problem is that even if we make the [...]

Enrich our Marriages, Telling it like it is part 3

November 13, 2008

Be specific — avoid generalisations Words like “never” and “always” are usually not true (I was tempted to say “are never true”). When a wife says to her husband, “You never show me any affection,” she is leaving herself wide open to being proved incorrect, because the husband will probably remind her that several weeks [...]

Enrich our Marriages, Telling it like it is part 1

November 13, 2008

How much do you want to? Margot had walked out on her husband even though they had been married for less than a year. She was convinced that he no longer loved her, that he didn’t really care for her. When she asked me what she should do, I advised her to tell him that [...]