• Bridge to Wholeness | Volume 2 Issue 5 May 2015

    Welcome to the May 2015 Issue of the Agape newsletter, Bridge to Wholeness! Our monthly newsletter is the best way for you to keep up with what is going on around Agape, with events and updates, and articles written by our counselors. We hope it will help bring you a little bit closer to emotional, mental, and spiritual wholeness! In this issue (click to read individual articles): Loving Young Adults Through Transition by Elizabeth Nimmo, MA, LPC Ch Ch Ch Changes by Darrell Provinse, MA, LPC, NCC Intimate Communication: Let’s Talk About Sex by Kathyrn Manley, MS, LPC, CST Healthy Playtime for Developing Kids by Carolyn Knarr, MSW, LCSW Upcoming Group Counseling…  Click…

  • Intimate Communication Lets Talk About Sex

    Intimate Communication: Let’s Talk About Sex

    When a couple is in a long-term monogamous relationship, symptoms affecting sexuality as the result of medical issues, chronic illness or disability, or even natural aging, are inevitable. Naturally, as we pass through life, our bodies experience physiological changes which affect our sexual functioning. Physiological changes might include pregnancy and nursing, coronary artery disease, cancer treatments, arthritis and chronic pain, injuries, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, aging, prostate problems or autoimmune disorders. Learning how to navigate through these changes by means of communication and compassion can be helpful for the sexual relationship. Medical issues, chronic illness, disability and aging are all capable of affecting the sexual relationship and can create symptoms that…

  • Adressing Sexual Intimacy in Therapy

    Addressing Sexual Intimacy in Therapy

    Claire (not her real name), was a young vibrant woman in her mid thirties : Kathy, I just don’t know why I’m here. I feel anxious all the time. I’m not sleeping well.  I’m exhausted. All my energy goes toward work and the baby. There is nothing left for my husband. When we are intimate, I have never been satisfied. A tear rolled down her cheek as she wrestled with her work blouse to unsnap her nursing bra. She positioned her crying baby to her breast, settled into my couch, and sighed. As Claire nestled in with her baby, she revealed her demanding job schedule, the anxiety of being pulled…

  • Commitment, Intimacy, and Fun

    by Tai Yong, MA, LPC, NCC Yale University psychologist Robert Sternberg did some pioneering work that attempted to answer the question, “What is love?”  He came up with a “Triangular Theory of Love,” which says that there are three elements to love: passion, intimacy, and commitment.  One might say that they represent the physical, the emotional, and the cognitive aspects of the relationship between husband and wife. While one may think that that the ideal case is an equilateral triangle where the three sides of the triangle are equal (i.e., in terms of strength or depth), I tend to think that the best case is one where commitment is given…