We ask a lot of romantic relationships. We want our partner to be our lover, best friend, confidant, co-parent, travel companion, financial partner, emotional support system, social companion, sounding board, roommate, and the person who understands us better than anyone…
The Invisible Sexual Script Running Your Bedroom Most of us like to think we're making our own decisions about sex—what we want, how often we want it, who initiates, what feels good, and what a satisfying sexual experience looks like…
The Sexual Double Standards We Still Haven’t Outgrown We like to think we've become more sexually progressive. Women can talk openly about pleasure. Dating apps have normalized casual sex. Conversations about consent, desire, sexual orientation, and nontraditional relationships are happening…
Why Sex After Childbirth Can Feel So Different There’s a strange cultural expectation around sex after having a baby. You go to your postpartum appointment, your provider checks that you’re healing, and somewhere around the six-week mark, you may hear…
Why Couples Stop Kissing Think about the beginning of a relationship. There was probably a lot of kissing. Kissing hello. Kissing goodbye. Making out on the couch. Kissing in the kitchen for absolutely no practical reason. Then, somewhere along the way, it…
Loneliness Inside a Long-Term Relationship When people think about loneliness, they often imagine someone who is single, living alone, or lacking close relationships. But some of the loneliest people I meet are married. They're sitting next to someone every evening, sharing a…
What Midlife Teaches Us About Pleasure When we're younger, pleasure often feels tied to achievement. We tell ourselves we'll relax after the promotion. We'll enjoy ourselves after the kids are older. We'll prioritize our relationships after life slows down. Then…
Relationship Audit: 10 Questions Couples Should Ask Annually Most people schedule yearly physicals, review their finances, and service their cars. Yet many couples go years without intentionally checking in on the health of their relationship. Relationships don't usually fall apart…
The Cultural Spillover You don’t have to be in a non-monogamous relationship to be influenced by how people think about them. Polyamory tends to get simplified. Either idealized as freedom or dismissed as dysfunction. But the myths surrounding it often shape how…
Some people avoid conflict. Others avoid closeness. And most of the time, they don’t realize they’re doing it. Avoidant intimacy patterns rarely look dramatic from the outside. In fact, many people with avoidant tendencies appear highly functional, independent, thoughtful, even emotionally…