“Can’t you see that this is not that and that is not this?” He barked out the response when she made reference to what had happened two years previously when we had been speaking of a current crisis. I realized that his 10-word statement was a great representation of what I had just been studying…
“Well for God’s sake, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings!“ That was the husband‘s surly-toned response when I asked him to empathize with his wife whose feelings had been hurt because he missed an opportunity to support her in front of their children. To his response, I explained that we were not addressing his…
Five boulder rocks were towering in the photographs. She had stacked them while out on a hike. She called them “the five giants in her life.” They represented things like the divorce she was facing, financial ruin, terror about her past, horror about her present, and trepidation about her future. You’ve been there. You’ve faced…
I was saddened to hear him say: “I am too old, I’ve made too many mistakes, and I can’t do the things she needs.” After years of struggling, his wife had informed him that she needed things to change, or she was prepared to leave the marriage. As a last ditch effort, he had reluctantly…