have my back Archives ⋆ Mike and Susan Dawson

What is ‘trust’ in a marriage?

My wife, Susan, and I trust each other. Granted, she may not always be able to trust me to take out the trash, and maybe I can’t necessarily trust her to pick out a television show we both want to watch on a chill Friday night at home. But when it comes to the important stuff in our marriage — what makes us both feel safe, connected, honored, valued, and loved — we trust each other implicitly. I trust that she’s there for me, and she trusts that I’m always there for her. This is a small snippet of what counselors like me mean when we talk about trust in [...]

Relationship Altering Questions of Trust

michaeldawsonlpc@gmail.com2018-02-23T15:45:40+00:00Relationships|

It has been a personal belief of mine that no two people are perfectly suited for each other only. In other words, there isn’t this “one perfect person somewhere out there in the universe” that you have to find. Rather, by learning skills, developing tools, and ‘doing the right things,’ couples can have a satisfying relationship. This belief is also the theory in the research of many marriage and relationship experts. Why then, do some couples learn these abilities and skills, and others just can’t put them into practice, or they resist doing them? The answer appears to be TRUST. In “The Science of Trust” author and researcher John Gottman [...]