Are baby blues hurting your family and spouse? Some of us have spent our entire lives dreaming of what life would be like once we were all grown up. We planned out our weddings, our ideal mates, and our perfect nuclear family with 2.5 children. It is when life does not go exactly according to plan that we begin to panic and loose control of our lives. Childbirth can be one of those hazy moments in life. We plan for months about a new addition to the family, but once we welcome this new little bundle into the world, life doesn’t always become the sunshine-filled dream we expected.

Dr. Sara Rosenquist is a specialist in the field of dealing with postpartum depression in women, and couples. Sara’s book, After The Stork: The Couple’s guide to Preventing and Overcoming Postpartum Depression, deals explicitly with these issues. Sara has a very extensive global background, which has allowed her to communicate easily with others. Over her lifetime Sara has lived in Tunisia, Argentina, Uruguay, Thailand, and El Salvador before coming back to the United States to study at Duke University, where she received her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. To find out more about Dr. Sara Rosenquist you can visit her website or call 919-872-4648 for an appointment. Sara’s book, After The Stork: The Couple’s guide to Preventing and Overcoming Postpartum Depression, is available on Amazon.com.

The current economic deficit has placed a significant strain on our wallets, our jobs, but most importantly, our relationships. Divorce rates are an unsettling 51% today, which means half of all marriages are ending in divorce. What is even more disturbing is that out of the couples getting divorced, approximately 80% of them attribute their failed marriage to disputes over finances. While these statistics may seem daunting, there is hope. There are ways to reduce the burden that financial difficulty has on marriage, and by enacting some of these techniques, your marriage will have a better chance for success.

Dr. Tina Lepage, founder of Lepage Associates in Durham, NC, specializes in couples and marriage therapy and helps to rebuild marriages on a daily basis. She has a master’s and doctorate in Clinical Psychology and an additional master’s in Management, degrees which prove exceptionally helpful for this topic. Financial stress effecting a relationship is more common than most would be believe. To help those dealing with this situation Lepage Associates have prepared an article, Managing Your Budget and Your Marriage: The Key to a Healthy Relationship.

To find out more about Dr. Tina Lepage you can visit the Lepage Associates website or call 919-572-0000 for an appointment.

If you or your spouse suffer from depression, you already know how hard it can be on both of you. Maybe you feel like you don’t know how to handle your partner’s depression, or on the other hand, maybe you don’t think your partner is really understanding what you’re going through. How do you continue to relate to each other when negative feelings can’t just be pushed aside?

Colette Segalla, a psychologist with Lepage Associates in Durham, NC, is here to discuss what depression feels like to partners on both sides, and what you can both do to keep your relationship strong in spite of it.

You can find out more about Colette by visiting LepageAssociates.com, or by calling 919-572-0000 for an appointment.

Has weight become a “big” issue in your marriage? Is it leading to intimacy problems, control issues, and health concerns that you don’t know how to address?  It’s easy for a marriage to run into trouble when one spouse puts on a significant amount of weight but can be difficult to address in a compassionate and constructive way.  Dr. Susan Orenstein joins us to discuss what factors can contribute to weight gain in a marriage, the relationship between eating and emotions, and how to approach such a touchy subject without causing conflict.

Dr. Orenstein is a licensed Psychologist with a private practice in Cary, NC and a newly opened location in Chapel Hill, NC.  She also conducts the Stay Happily Married seminar series in Raleigh.  You can find out more about Dr. Orenstein at www.orensteinsolutions.com

Are the feelings of irritability, withdrawal, and tiredness that you or your spouse are feeling just temporary, or signs of a bigger problem? Dr. Nicole Imbraguglio joins us to discuss how easy it can be to let depression go unnoticed and the toll that depression can have on children, the other spouse, and the entire marriage.

Dr. Imbraguglio practices with Lepage Associates in Durham, NC and helps both adults and children with a wide range of emotional issues. She has provided counseling for individuals, groups, couples, and families. You can learn more about Nicole at LepageAssociates.com.