“that dip can happen for a number of reasons, including the natural progression of your relationship over time,” says chris kraft, ph.d., director of clinical services at the sex and gender clinic in the department of psychiatry at johns hopkins medicine. “it’s natural for a couple’s sex life to decline after having a baby because of the exhaustion and lack of private time,” says kraft. “and, couples aren’t as intentional about connecting with each other as they were earlier in …

while not wishing to complain, bob thinks their marriage is in trouble. marriage is a call to on-going intimacy – not only sexual intimacy, but also the intentional develop of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual intimacy. sustaining physical attraction, however, often takes a conscious decision to put time and effort into a dimension of the relationship that used to come effortlessly. for mary and bob, focusing on intimacy may require making the effort to break out of a routine and investing …

infidelity can happen when the connection in your relationship is not strong and can cause a breakdown of trust. in other instances, sexual problems can be due to the sexual preferences of a spouse. try to love and accept the different changes that life brings for both of you individually and as a couple. a therapist can help you or your partner through any traumatic experience and give you the tools to help you deal with these challenges. whether it …

i have a strong sex drive, so if it were up to me, we’d do it every day, the way we used to when we were dating. trained as a problem-solving, strategic therapist, i used to give that directive to couples and often found that it had the desired effect. despite the fact that, like mark and stacey, most partners want me to get the other to change, i try to help each listen inside to discover why they respond …

the best way to ensure your husband pulls his weight is to be specific about what you want—kid cleanup, dinner prep, laundry loading—and let him do it his way. but if you find that you truly are hashing out the same issue all the time, it’s worth sitting down and getting to the root of the problem. talking over the problem—that you love his parents, but want to make sure you and he are united in decisions when they involve …