Christina Kousakis, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

REPOST:IMPORTANT From my friends sister, the surgical nurse and certified CPR teacher: Please pause for 2 minutes and read this: 1. Let’s say it’s 7.25pm and you’re going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. 2. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated.... 3 Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home. 4. Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. 5. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself. 6. HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. 7. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. 8. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. 9. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!! 10. A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this mail kindly sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life. 11. Rather than sending jokes, please... contribute by forwarding this mail which can save a person’s life. 12. If this message comes around you... more than once please don’t get irritated... You should instead, be happy that you have many friends who care about you & keeps reminding you how to deal with a Heart attack. Hold your finger down on the message and hit forward. See more

Some tips from Joh Gottman that can imporve your relationship. To bond more deeply with a romantic partner make sure to: Kill the boring dates. Do new exciting stuff. Dancing, suspenseful movies, learning new things together.... Don’t fix the negatives. Build on the positives. You can’t fix most problems. Double down on what works well. Really get to know them. And ask about the best part of their day, celebrate it, and share the high point of your day. Touch. Stare into their eyes. Reminisce about the times you laughed. Emphasize similarity. Pretend you’re on your first date again. Make an effort. Put your best face forward.

Intentional dialogue requires intentional listening.

It is about slowing down the process.

Imago Therapy and Intentional Dialogue work. Here's how.

Intentional dialogue is about slowing down the process.

I am a certified Imago Therapist. We take a different approach.

I teach couples to listen.

What happens if the focus is not on what's wrong, but what you both want in your relationship.

Dialogue happens between the two people in therapy. I tend to be more of a coach.

Life can be like this more than we know. Dialogue helps.

We can get used to things as they are, even when things get bad. It doesn't have to be like that.

The process is less about you and more about learning about your partner.

Intentional Dialogue is at the foundation of the work i do. And what happens in therapy.