Get Your Marriage On! with Dan Purcell

Modern electronic media has had a big impact on relationships, especially in the last two decades. It’s never been easier to stay in touch with loved ones or improve real-time communication. Like many things in life, media use can be helpful and harmful on our relationships, depending on how it’s used. I got in touch with McCall Booth, a super-smart Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University that researches the media's impact on marriage and families. I hope her insights help you and your lover draw closer intimately with wiser media choices.

Building a strong marriage requires each individual to also be strong on their own. We also want to feel free in our relationships, which requires a lot of maturity and personal growth. My guest today is Julie Bender. I love her story because she illustrates what growing and maturing in a relationship can look like. Julie's shares how she's learned how to embrace her story, and in that, found healing and her true self. To learn more about Julie check out The Julie Bender Show Podcast and the This Grit and Grace Life Podcast which she co-hosts. She also produces a weekly video series for wives called #prayingforyourhusbanddaily.

This episode, #52, marks 1 year of podcast episodes for Get Your Marriage On!  I’ve had the privilege of interviewing many sex experts over the previous year. In many of the episodes I ask them what black belt sex tips they’d give to a couple in a healthy marriage up the quality of connection and pleasure in the bedroom.  I’ve rounded up my favorite 20 tips. Ready? Let’s go!

Have you ever wondered how do you talk to your kids about sex? Why does talking about sex with our kids feel awkward most of the time? What's the best approach to talk about dating relationships, our bodies, and everything in between? What about the hard topics? Well, if this has been on your mind, you're in for a treat today, as I am able to sit down with Tammy Hill. Tammy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an adjunct professor of Family Life at Brigham Young University.

Have you ever noticed that there’s something almost invisible and intangible that interferes with our ability to connect with our spouses sometimes? According to our expert guest today, it affects women more than men. It’s about the mental load we carry, how our minds are constantly buzzing with all the things that need to get done. Couples that develop the skill of “bearing one other’s burdens so that they may be light” find more room to connect and find happiness in their relationship. Morgan Cutlip has a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Akron and holds a master’s degree in Human Development and Family Sciences from Ohio State University. She specializes in helping individuals and couples find happiness and health in their relationships. She and her father are the founders of My Love Thinks, a company dedicated to creating user-friendly and practical relationship education resources.  As you’ll soon hear, Dr. Cutlip has a special passion for helping couples find a fair distribution of responsibilities in the home and helping mothers engage in meaningful self-care.

Ahhhhh, communication in marriage. It’s so important, and also a source of frustration in our most important relationships! We don’t always know how to talk, and more importantly, listen to one another, especially when emotions run high. Learning to talk about intimacy in marriage is also a skill we can develop. My guest today is Denise and Oliver Marcelle founders of Denoli LLC. They mentor couples on improving their communication skills for deeper intimacy and connection. They’ve been married for 20 years and have 3 children.

We all experience times of loss and grief. I received an excellent question from a listener in regards to this: "My wife and I are grieving due to loss and it is something we are trusting God with and through but this is an odd space to be in to think about or bring up sex. I know things need to look different but help to navigate this would be helpful. Can you do a podcast episode or a blog or something on how to think about intimacy while walking through grief?" So today's podcast is going to do just that! I reached out to Cecilie Ott, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist that specializes in helping individuals and families deal with times of loss. I learned a lot from her teaching and I hope this helps you whoever this episode was meant for.

Taking care of yourself is part of taking care of your relationship. Join me for this SOLO episode and learn how to use the 3-2-1 rule to enhance yourself and your relationship with your spouse.

Dan interviewed Joy Skarka from Authentic Intimacy. Joy's story can be described in one word: freedom. She is passionate about creating spaces to free women from shame. Tune in to hear how Joy found freedom from sexual abuse, sexual addiction, and how she navigates painful sex. Joy is the Authentic Intimacy's Director of Discipleship. To learn more about Joy and her work visit Authentic Intimacy.

Close romantic relationships are often fraught with anxiety. It just comes with the territory, and it’s a beautiful part of what makes us human. How we deal with that anxiety is a different story though. I read Dr. Kathleen Smith’s excellent book, “Everything Isn’t Terrible” and learned sooo much about how my family’s dynamic affects the way I show up in my marriage and other relationships. Tune in to hear my interview with Dr. Smith on how differentiation - a term she uses to describe a mature way to deal with anxiety -- leads to better relationships.