Is your marriage lopsided? Is one spouse so emotionally dependent on the other that it is causing tension and stress between the two of you? Jennifer Coleman joins us to examine the line between a healthy and unhealthy emotional dependence on your spouse and what you can do to identify and correct dependency issues in your relationship.
Jennifer is a licensed professional counselor and is a nationally certified counselor who practices with Eastover Psychological and Psychiatric Group in Cornelius, NC, where she works with couples, families and  individuals from young children to adults on issues ranging from depression, anxiety, relationship issues and life transitions. Jennifer is also a Life Transitions Coach with Rosen Law Firm, where she helps clients set goals and priorities to help manage their lives. You can find out more about Jennifer and her practice at EPPG.org
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Getting to know your significant other is a process that does not end. Just when you think you know someone, you realize there is much more to them than you assume. Parallel evolution strengthens couples. Sometimes people evolve differently. As long as you love and support each other through changes, then a relationship works. When couples are not willing to grow together, they encounter difficulties.
Thanks for this! I am that overly perfect husband who has been getting all my emotional needs met by my wife for fifteen plus years. Sadly, we had such a hard time coming to understand and identify the problem that it has already done a lot of damage in our relationship. You didn’t talk about how sex and intimacy play into this but they can really put the downward spiral into overdrive. For men, particularly romantically senstive men, sex is a balm that can heal all wounds and ultimately desensitize us to how our own individual lives are slipping away from us. The wife, as both the giver of sex and validator of our selfhood, becomes the whole of our existence and the burden becomes overwhelming.
Thanks for your feedback. You’ve given me some good ideas for a followup show. You’re very insightful.
Good luck.
Lee