Getting to know another person can be tricky business. That’s especially true with young people who are just beginning to date. However, as many a person in a long-term relationship will attest, it can also be a challenge even in a mature relationship. One of the keys...
First-Date Questions You Won’t Regret
Meeting someone for a first date can be simultaneously thrilling and nerve-wracking. Even if you're acquainted with someone through work or a club, or maybe you’ve made a connection through a dating service, meeting in person for coffee or a drink with the explicit...
How To Use Conflicts To Deepen Your Relationship
One of the joys of being in a long-term romantic relationship is the process of slowly getting to know each better week by week, year by year. Ideally, deepening levels of intimacy are the result. An interesting corollary to the process is that as you get to know your...
An Incomparable Combination: Education, Experience and Advanced Training
When an individual, couple or family reaches out for professional counseling, they are trusting the counselor to apply both training and experience to help them improve interpersonal relationships and resolve life crisis situations. For years, Patricia McTague-Loft’s...
Cultivating Emotional Intimacy
Anyone in a long-term romantic relationship has undoubtedly experienced some emotional ups and downs. We’re not just talking about the inevitable ups and downs of the relationship itself. Rather, we’re talking about events and circumstances involving others beyond the...
Recognizing Signs Of A Deteriorating Relationship
People who have dated a variety of romantic partners probably recognize that relationships develop in a fairly predictable pattern. Typically, you meet someone whom you’re attracted to and start to get to know them, through informal or formal dating. If things are...
What’s Better Than A Bouquet Of Roses?
Virtually everyone in a long-term romantic relationship would admit that keeping the flame alive and deepening the relationship takes a little work. Not in the dreary sense of a job you really don’t feel like doing, but in the delightful sense of dedicating yourself...
What’s Better Than Giving Your Partner A Maserati?
Marriage Counseling Insights From Westlake Village-Based Patricia McTague-Loft Here’s a simple question for you: What’s the best way to express love to your spouse or partner? Many people in a long-term romantic relationship might immediately think of the amazing...
Does Your Partner Share Your Guiding Light?
Marriage Counseling Insights From Westlake Village-Based Patricia McTague-Loft When young (and even not-so-young) people begin dating, it’s often with someone they’ve met through a common interest. They might belong to the same tennis club, or get to know each other...
How To Avoid Traps That Can Kill A Relationship
As a Gottman-trained therapist, I find articles dealing with the Gottman Institute of particular interest and value. I advanced through Gottman Method Couples Therapy training — Levels 1, 2 & 3 — and appreciate how the training provides research-based strategies...