angry Archives ⋆ Mike and Susan Dawson

What are the Labels I’m Stamping on My Spouse?

Sometimes, I wish I could crawl inside Susan’s head to see everything she’s thinking and feeling. I’m sure she’d say the same about me. But even after all these years of being happily married, we can’t completely know each other — and that’s OKAY! Let’s just say we keep each other on our toes! However, many couples become so desperate to “know” their spouse that they mind-read and unintentionally create negative labels (or schemas) that can really hurt a relationship. As we learned in a previous blog, many couples have expectations or assumptions about each other, and we carry those around for a very long time — to the point [...]

Understand and Handle Your Anger for Better Relationships

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2017-03-17T14:24:40+00:00Emotion|

Anger is probably the most misunderstood of all our emotions. We generally think of it as more of a behavior than an emotion. Words like screaming, throwing, intimidating, and even harming, all come to mind. But anger is first of all an emotion (one that we all experience!), and it is important to differentiate between the feeling of anger and the expression or behavior of it! Anger can certainly be a powerful, controlling, and even dangerous emotion when it is not understood and dealt with through appropriate behaviors. The effect of anger on loving, intimate relationships is especially dangerous. But anger in and of itself is not bad; it is [...]