Ep135: How To Get Your Needs Met In Relationships with Dr. Corey Allen from Sexy Marriage Radio

Aug 1, 2025

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Tough conversations are one of the hardest things to navigate in relationships. Especially when everyone carries some kind of emotional baggage that’s waiting to erupt without notice.

For example, a conversation about your health and fitness could be interpreted as a threat by your partner. They’re thrown into flight-or-flight. You feel like your needs are being neglected. A fight takes place. And you’re both left wondering what happened.

If this pattern keeps happening, you’ll drift apart.

So, what can you do?

I invited Dr. Corey Allen, co-host of Sexy Marriage Radio, to share how you can break destructive patterns, how to be okay with discomfort during conflict, and why you might not always need your partner’s agreement to get your needs met.

Here’s what Dr. Corey Allen shares in this episode:

How to have tough conversations with your spouse in a way that’s productive and brings you closer together
Why avoiding conflict makes it bubble beneath the surface
How to claim time for exercise and living a healthier lifestyle even when your partner isn’t 100% on board

And more.

Other highlights include:

How to be able to open the door to uncomfortable, but important conversations with your spouse in a less messy way (9:23)
Why you don’t always need your partner’s agreement when it comes to your fitness needs (17:23)
How to reframe a conversation about your needs when your spouse doesn’t agree (and why this happens more often than you might think) (21:00)
Why old wounds can be poked by new conversations with your spouse (and how to better navigate these troubled waters) (31:19)
The “Completed Conversation” mistake men make during conflict with loved ones that undermines healthy communication (32:42)
Do stories from your head (or your partner’s head) keep derailing conflict and causing intense outbursts? This book helps you talk about your emotions without the story attached (35:17)
How being too solution-focused in conflict can backfire on your marriage and make you grow further apart (42:45)

Listen now!

Resources mentioned on this episode:

1. Want more from Dr. Corey Allen? Listen to his show, Sexy Marriage Radio, wherever you listen to podcasts.

2. Buy Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD (the book mentioned in this episode) on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/da58pfF