As a therapist, I meet with many couples and help them navigate their often-complicated relationships. Here are a few of the more frequent issues:
- Communication issues where one or both do not feel heard.
- Infidelity
- Financial issues – I hear this more often than infidelity
- Loss of intimacy
- Emotional abuse and sometimes physical abuse
- Varying life goals
- Jealousy
And while I could go on, the latest, and difficult, current issue I’m encountering is politics. The current field is fraught with such diversity and adversity that relationships are breaking up due to a partner’s political leanings.
I try to stay away from politics in my office because those discussions are not pretty. I also know that if I start to render any kind of opinion, it goes against my personal policy of avoiding incendiary issues that could turn into a January 6 event.
Some examples:
- Engagement is broken two weeks before a wedding because one now ex came out as a Trumper.
- A woman in a new relationship will not agree to have sex with her new guy because she can’t find out who he will vote for in November.
- A father and daughter went to battle – and I mean physical battle – because she took scissors to his MAGA hat. Reunification was a bust.
This is not what I was trained to do. But I’ll admit, it is not without interest. Post-debate, I expected things to rachet up a bit. Fortunately, Facebook and a bucket-full of hilarious memes kept the humor alive, if not the relationships. I needed those laughs, or in my case giant smiles, while stuck in a post-surgical bed following some mean-spirited surgery. In fact, there have been several times when The Donald made me laugh…like when I worked for him (no, not in politics, heaven forbid). But you’ll have to tune in for another episode of this therapist to get that story. And it is a great one.
But being on the injured list, I am currently choosing to keep all the rest of my body parts intact right now. Taylor Swift and I are making a pact. He said, “she will grow to regret her endorsement.” I do not have over 200 thousand cheering fans and supporters, but Taylor is now my favorite performer of all time, and I have never heard her songs.
