Blog | Relationship Resources for Couples & Individuals

Letters From Esther #36: Fighting with your Partner about Values?

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's focus is on clashing with your partner around values.

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.

Letters from Esther #35: The Last Time I Felt Free…

Letters From Esther #34: How Are You?

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships.

How to Write Wedding Vows That Set Your Marriage Up For Success

Vows that set a marriage up for success trade promises to do it all for intentions to do our best—especially in the hard times. Anyone who’s been married can tell you that, for all of the joy and love, there’s just as many fights and betrayals. The question is: how will we repair and grow stronger each time? Vows are an opportunity to address this very question. And, when done well, vows can be a compass to return to every time we lose our way. Read more on how to trade promises for intentions and a beautiful writing exercise for wedding vow drafts or as an ongoing activity do to throughout your marriage.

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

The Myth of Unconditional Love in Romantic Relationships

“Relational Ambivalence” is the experience of contradictory thoughts and feelings—of love and hate, attraction and disgust, excitement and fear, contempt and envy—toward someone with whom we are in a relationship. It exists in every relational configuration, but we put a lot of pressure on romantic love, in particular, to rise above it. Read more on how ambivalence shows up in your romantic relationships and the common responses to it.

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Letters From Esther #37: Eroticism is an Art. But It’s Also a Practice.

Letters From Esther #36: Fighting with your Partner about Values?

Letters from Esther #35: The Last Time I Felt Free…

Letters From Esther #34: How Are You?

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships.

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

My monthly newsletter and workshop are meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Inviting Vulnerability.

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

Six Essential Practices to Improve Listening Skills in Relationships

The way we listen shapes a conversation as much as the way we speak or respond. Nothing makes us feel more deeply connected than when we are engaged in a healthy balance of thoughtful speaking and hardcore listening. Read more on my six essential practices to improve listening in your relationships and learn to strike the delicate balance of receiving and reciprocating.

The Other 3 Little Words: I Love You, But—What Are We?

Saying “I love you” has long been the ultimate marker of seriousness in the early months of romantic relationships. In the last few decades, however, the rise of the “situationship” has elongated the dating phase, elevating a different set of “three little words” to the pantheon of important relational dialogue. Read more on why discussing “What are we?” is an important part of creating a shared reality with healthy boundaries and expectations in a relationship.

Our Comfort with Intimacy Has A Lot to do with These 7 Verbs

Love is an active verb. It’s imbued with intention and meaning and contains an implicit call to action. In the language of intimacy, basic fluency comes down to just seven verbs. The experiences that revolve around these shape our beliefs about ourselves and our expectations of others. Read more on the seven verbs of intimacy and how they help us to understand not just how we learned to love and be loved—but how we want to now.

Articles

Letters from Esther #61: The Art of Erotic Communication

Letters From Esther #36: Fighting with your Partner about Values?

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

Letters from Esther #35: The Last Time I Felt Free…

Letters From Esther #34: How Are You?

How to Write Wedding Vows That Set Your Marriage Up For Success

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

The Myth of Unconditional Love in Romantic Relationships

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Letters From Esther #37: Eroticism is an Art. But It’s Also a Practice.

Letters From Esther #36: Fighting with your Partner about Values?

Letters from Esther #35: The Last Time I Felt Free…

Letters From Esther #34: How Are You?

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

Six Essential Practices to Improve Listening Skills in Relationships

The Other 3 Little Words: I Love You, But—What Are We?

Our Comfort with Intimacy Has A Lot to do with These 7 Verbs

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.