Blog | Relationship Resources for Couples & Individuals

What Is This Feeling? Anticipatory Grief and Other New Pandemic-Related Emotions

The unprecedented crisis caused by the novel coronavirus has left us with a set of unfamiliar emotions. Read more to learn about these new emotions you may be experiencing and what to do about them.

Letters From Esther #9: Life and Love Under Lockdown

My monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for your relational intelligence. This month's theme is: Life and Love Under Lockdown.

How to Engage in Social Connection While Socially Distancing

How do our communities remain emotionally and socially connected when we must be physically apart? Read more on how to stay connected in a time of uncertainty.

Letters From Esther #8: The Myth of Self-Love

Letters from Esther is my monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for your relational intelligence. This month's theme is: The Myth of Self-Love.

The Value of Letter Writing

Letter writing allows for a deeply private space for reflection and, if appropriate for sending, potential communication. The trick is knowing the difference between what we should keep for only ourselves and what should be sent—and being able to manage what we open up in ourselves and in others if and when we decide to reach out. Read more on why letters are important to me and how to write your own.

Letters from Esther #7: The Art of Conversation

Letters from Esther is my monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for our relational intelligence. This month's theme is: The Art of Communication

Unsent Love Letters - Lingering Loss

In this Unsent Love Letter, the author writes to a former long-term partner who she hasn't seen for eight years. We discuss the themes of lingering loss and celebrating what once was. Read more to hear what the letter holds.

Unsent Love Letters - An Introduction

Welcome! Unsent Love Letters is a six-part series of real unsent love letters from people who wrote to a loved one, but in the end kept their words to themselves. Each article includes the original letter, a playful video discussion, and an exercise for those who resonate. Read more to get started.

Letters From Esther #9: Life and Love Under Lockdown

My monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for your relational intelligence. This month's theme is: Life and Love Under Lockdown.

Letters From Esther #8: The Myth of Self-Love

Letters from Esther #7: The Art of Conversation

Letters from Esther #6 - Promises and Resolutions

Letters from Esther is my monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for our relational intelligence. In celebration of the new year, this month's theme is: Promises and Resolutions.

Letters from Esther #5 - Trauma, Poetry, and Elephants in South Africa

Letters from Esther #4 - Relationship Dynamics in the Workplace

My monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for your relational intelligence. In celebration of the release of my new podcast, How’s Work, this month's theme is: Relationship Dynamics in the Workplace

Letters from Esther #3 - Helping is Making Me Feel Helpless

Letters from Esther #2 - Security and Freedom

Sex? After Kids? - A Podcast with Dr. Becky

What happens when two become three, or four, or five? Who is responsible for the needs and wants of a couple when days are filled with playdates, pick-ups, and meal preps? Nights lack the erotic energy that couples need not only to survive but to thrive. Dr. Becky and Esther Perel come together to talk about what parents can do to rekindle their desires.

Sexless Relationship? Take the First Step Toward Reconnection.

From physical challenges to breaches of trust to parenting exhaustion and beyond, there are so many reasons couples fall into a sexless relationship. Read more on how to shift your focus and take the first step toward intimate reconnection. A hint: it has nothing to do with frequency.

In Long-Term Relationships, When Do You Find Yourself Most Drawn to Your Partner?

Reconciling the domestic and the erotic is a delicate balancing act in long-term relationships. It requires knowing your partner while recognizing their persistent mystery. Read more on the one simple question that reminds us to appreciate our partner’s otherness and what the four most common responses tell us.

Intimacy and Your 5 Senses: How to Invite Eroticism into Your Relationship When You’re Feeling Depleted

Eroticism is fundamental to maintaining intimacy when couples are facing challenges, whether they are coming from inside of the relationship or from external stress in our lives. Read more about how to use the power of your senses to practice eroticism and increase intimacy when you’re feeling depleted.

Feeling Touch-Starved? How Our Sense of Touch Keeps Us Radically Connected to Ourselves

Our sense of touch is a powerful tool for self-care. Nothing can replace the touch from a loved one, but this period of distance from others gives us an opportunity to explore a type of physical intimacy we often neglect: that which lives inside of us. Read more about why self-touch is important for the relationship we have with ourselves and how it can help us through this moment in time.

Bringing Home the Erotic: 5 Ways to Create Meaningful Connections with Your Partner

Many of us, when it comes to sexuality, tend to do what we think we should do rather than what we’d like to be doing. We get stuck in ruts and disconnect from our imaginations. Read more about how to overcome your obstacles to desire and create meaningful connections with your partner.

Finding Freedom in What Feels Good: 3 Reasons to Embrace Foreplay

Contrary to popular assumptions, foreplay is so much more than just the physical suggestion that kick-starts sex. Let’s adjust the lens. Read more on three reasons to embrace foreplay as the freedom to experience what feels good, for no other goal than pure pleasure—from a quick warmup to lasting erotic energy.

How to Introduce Role Play Ideas To Your Partner

Role play and fantasy are playful opportunities to break routines and enhance excitement and pleasure in the bedroom. We all have imaginative resources that allow us to play and be curious and to ask ourselves: what would it look and feel like to be intimate together in a different way? Read more on simple steps to help you introduce role play ideas to your partner.

Articles

Letters from Esther #65: Is love worth it?

Letters from Esther

What Is This Feeling? Anticipatory Grief and Other New Pandemic-Related Emotions

Letters From Esther #9: Life and Love Under Lockdown

How to Engage in Social Connection While Socially Distancing

Letters From Esther #8: The Myth of Self-Love

The Value of Letter Writing

Letters from Esther #7: The Art of Conversation

Unsent Love Letters - Lingering Loss

Unsent Love Letters - An Introduction

Letters From Esther #9: Life and Love Under Lockdown

Letters From Esther #8: The Myth of Self-Love

Letters from Esther #7: The Art of Conversation

Letters from Esther #6 - Promises and Resolutions

Letters from Esther #5 - Trauma, Poetry, and Elephants in South Africa

Letters from Esther #4 - Relationship Dynamics in the Workplace

Letters from Esther #3 - Helping is Making Me Feel Helpless

Letters from Esther #2 - Security and Freedom

Sex? After Kids? - A Podcast with Dr. Becky

Sexless Relationship? Take the First Step Toward Reconnection.

In Long-Term Relationships, When Do You Find Yourself Most Drawn to Your Partner?

Intimacy and Your 5 Senses: How to Invite Eroticism into Your Relationship When You’re Feeling Depleted

Feeling Touch-Starved? How Our Sense of Touch Keeps Us Radically Connected to Ourselves

Bringing Home the Erotic: 5 Ways to Create Meaningful Connections with Your Partner

Finding Freedom in What Feels Good: 3 Reasons to Embrace Foreplay

How to Introduce Role Play Ideas To Your Partner

You can also browse articles, Letters from Esther, and Podcast Episodes in our “Focus On” sections, where we group resources based on important relational topics.