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What is a relationship role model and why is it important? In our therapy practice in Denver, Colorado, we often remind clients why it's important to identify ideal relationships to inform how they might improve their own. Having real-life examples can provide more clarity around what you want and don’t want, and help illuminate the path to get there.

Do you have a relationship role model? In this post, you’ll learn how to identify, cultivate, and utilize relationship role models to build and maintain healthy relationships, or evaluate the relationship you are in. 

Identifying Role Models

It’s possible that you have witnessed an ideal relationship that is close ...

So much of what creates fulfillment in life stems from making the right decisions. You make significant choices throughout your life as you decide your career path, whether to have kids, and who to choose as a romantic partner. It’s important to be selective and clear about your values and needs as you make any important decision about your future, especially when it comes to your primary, romantic relationship.

If you aren’t selective when choosing a partner, you’ve likely run into one of three roadblocks that result from poor selection. In this post, we’ll dive into three common outcomes of poor selection.

Hot and Heavy, But Burns Out Fast

More and more types of relationships emerge as dating becomes increasingly fluid and exploratory. One of the latest examples of this is a “situationship”.

Different than a friendship or relationship, Urban Dictionary defines a situationship as “a relationship that has no label on it... like a friendship but more than a friendship but not quite a relationship.” While often situationships are viewed as unhealthy or complicated, they are growing in prevalence. Often, situationships are associated with fear of commitment, but they can also be productive if the “couple” is transparent about expectations and intentions.

Especially during times of major transitions in life, such as following a

Relationships can often be a roller coaster. No matter if you are in the honeymoon phase of a new relationship or have been married for years, all partnerships will go through good times and rough patches. Especially if you are dating or in a new relationship, it might be hard to understand the underlying reasons for the ups and downs or moments of connection alongside days of friction. Not only are you trying to understand new relationship dynamics, you’re also trying to learn about the triggers, reactions, and personality of another person during these early stages of a relationship.

This isn’t an easy feat and it’s often met ...

Life is full of lessons, as are relationships. Through various stages of relationships, you’ll be faced with learnings, opportunities for growth, and the ability to do things differently than you did in the past. It’s when we can use the lessons of our past to improve our future relationships that wisdom results and real progress occurs.

Relationships will go through phases as a couple moves from dating to long-term commitment. At each of these phases, there is an opportunity to let go of past patterns and choose to do things differently to help the relationship unfold with more ease and fulfillment.

In this post, we’ll examine the ...

Wine is known to be good for your heart, as are relationships. In fact, scientists have concluded that people who are happily married or in long-term committed relationships actually live longer, on average, than their single friends. But that’s not where the analogy ends. Here are three truths about relationships that also important when making wine, and what you can learn from the alignment. 

Outward appearances mean so little

If you are a wine drinker, at some point in your life, you were probably lured into buying a bottle of wine because of a clever or beautiful label. Maybe that purchase was due to a funny vineyard name ...

Think back to your last break-up...Did you feel devastatingly empty, depressed, lost or wonder how you would move forward without this person in your life? If so, you might be prone to losing yourself in a relationship. If you tend to merge with your current partner, assume their likes and dislikes, and take on his or her interests, after the relationship ends, you most likely feel a deep loss of your sense of self.

You might wonder why you do this, how you can maintain your life with and without a partner and may be just starting to recognize a pattern of attaching that doesn’t feel helpful, healthy or ...