A 75-year longitudinal study from Harvard recently reported that love and relationships are by far the most important factors to leading a happy and fulfilling life. The study’s lead researcher, Dr. George Vaillant, wrote that there are two essential ingredients for a good life: “One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.” So, why is it that we get in our own way when it comes to finding and maintaining love? On a romantic level, why are we our own worst enemy?
While most of us say we want love in our lives, so many of us find it difficult to tolerate meaningful romantic relationships that satisfy our needs and desires. Many people either struggle in selecting an appropriate, loving partner, or when they do enter a relationship, they feel compelled to push away or even punish the one they love. Fear of intimacy is an often subconscious reaction to closeness that frequently affects people’s personal relationships. Many people are afraid of being vulnerable or of losing their sense of identity by falling in love. These fears of physical and/or emotional intimacy tend to show up at various stages of a relationship when a person feels challenged. They also tend to arise in people’s closest and most meaningful connections.
In this Webinar, Dr. Lisa Firestone will explain both what causes this fear as well as how individuals can push past this fear and expand their capacity for love. By providing participants with a theoretical model that integrates psychodynamic, existential and family systems frameworks, Dr. Firestone will assist individuals and clinicians working with clients to develop and maintain true intimacy in their relationships. She will introduce interventions that can lead to enhanced communication and more personal relating between couples, while also creating a heightened sense of individuality in each partner.
