Using wisdom developed through three decades of clinical practice, Passionate Marriage® educational programs and materials offer revolutionary ways to approach sex, intimacy, and conflict in love relationships. Passionate Marriage® workshops and publications emphasize:
- New insights: Ground-breaking ways to understand your situation, creating new opportunities to enhance your relationship.
- Practical application: Activities and applications that help you change things rapidly and effectively.
Passionate Marriage® programs and materials highlight how common problems with sex and intimacy are really part of an incredible system:
We believe marriage is a natural “people-growing process.” Sexual boredom, lack of passion, and “communication difficulties” are a few of the things that drive it. Relationships are shaped by more than unresolved childhood issues, past “wounds,” or family-of-origin problems. Emotionally committed relationships become contentious because these growth processes surface in sexual interactions and other intimate exchanges. Love relationships involve two-choice dilemmas: difficult decisions and severe tests of selfhood (“crucibles”). For example:
- The person with the least sexual desire always controls sex.
- You can badger your spouse into having sex, but you can never badger him/her into wanting you.
- One partner can always force the other to choose between staying married vs. maintaining integrity or self-worth.Marital problems are not simply situational difficulties to be avoided. Going through these dilemmas makes us capable of deep intimacy, profound desire, and meaningful sex. Unsolvable conflicts and sexual difficulties are midpoints in a healthy relationship, rather than signs of personal inadequacy, incompatibility, or falling out of love.
Passionate Marriage® programs show how your relationship with yourself controls intimate connection and sexual desire for your partner. Relying on your partner to give you a reflected sense of self (as most people do) limits intimacy and desire. However, this revolutionary approach gives you specific ways to build a solid sense of self while getting closer to your partner and more invested in your relationship.
Passionate Marriage® materials decode the “language” of sex, revealing how sexual interactions say a lot about you, your partner, and your relationship. They emphasizes intimate and emotional connection during sex rather than focusing on “touch techniques.” Better sex doesn’t automatically create a better relationship, but the personal growth required to enhance sex and intimacy also improves marriage in other ways. Learning to maintain yourself in your marriage improves all your relationships.
Passionate Marriage® programs and materials emphasize life-long sexual development rather than merely curing desire problems or sexual dysfunctions. People get better in bed as they get older. Most people never reach their sexual potential, and those who do are generally into their 40s, 50s, and 60s. You are more capable of an intensely intimate sexual relationship as you mature (become more differentiated). The Passionate Marriage® Approach honors the strength it takes to love on Life’s terms. This no-nonsense adult approach harnesses the natural processes of marriage to help you become truly capable of loving.
