#couples-therapy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #couples-therapy, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 28, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Couples who share awe-inspiring experiences report greater relationship flourishing
Experiencing feelings of awe alongside a romantic partner is linked to greater relationship satisfaction and depth. A recent study suggests that these shared moments of wonder foster a stronger sense of connection and relational growth, providing benefits beyond what individual experiences of awe offer. The research was published in The Journal of Positive Psychology.
Awe is an emotion triggered by encountering something vast that challenges a person’s existing understanding of the world. This feeling can arise from seeing a breathtaking natural landscape, listening to a moving piece of music, or experiencing a moment of profound scientific insight. Compared to simple happiness, awe tends to be a self-transcendent emotion. It reduces a person’s focus on themselves and encourages open-mindedness.
A 2022 review detailed how experiencing awe shifts attention outward, fostering social connection, a heightened sense of meaning, and prosocial behavior. Expanding on these personal effects, a study covered by PsyPost in 2022 indicated that awe increases a person’s motivation to pursue their authentic self, driven by these very feelings of self-transcendence.
While prior research highlights the personal benefits of awe, studies focusing on individually induced awe in romantic contexts have yielded mixed results. The authors of the new study reasoned that awe might be most impactful for couples when it is a shared experience. Sharing emotional events is known to intensify feelings and help partners build intimacy.
“My research focuses on awe and its relationship to psychological depth,” said lead author Matteo Perini, a PhD candidate in social and cultural psychology at the Behavioural Science Institute at Radboud University. “One idea that has become central to my work is that awe may be one route into depth: by confronting us with something vast that goes beyond our current frame of reference, it may push us to revise our mental models and engage with things at a deeper level.”
“This study extends that question into romantic relationships: can awe, when experienced together, help two people connect more deeply?” Perini added.
The research involved two online studies. The first study recruited 198 adults who were in a romantic relationship. To participate, individuals had to be currently in love and report high levels of passionate love. The participants completed questionnaires measuring their general tendency to experience awe in daily life, the awe they experienced specifically with their partner, and their overall relationship satisfaction.
The scientists also measured self-other overlap, which is the degree to which a person feels their own identity merges with their partner’s identity. Participants indicated this overlap by adjusting a digital image of two circles, one representing themselves and the other representing their partner, until the circles reflected their perceived level of connection.
The authors found that shared awe positively predicted relationship satisfaction, passionate love, and self-other overlap. When the researchers looked at general awe and shared awe together in the same statistical model, only shared awe remained a positive predictor of these relationship outcomes. A person’s general tendency to experience awe on their own did not account for unique positive variance when shared awe was considered.
To expand on these initial findings, the researchers conducted a second study with 306 romantically involved adults. In this group, participants did not have to report being currently in love. The scientists measured the same concepts as the first study but added new variables to capture different layers of relationship depth. These included relationship flourishing, which reflects a meaning-oriented dimension of relationship growth, such as seeking out shared purpose rather than just feeling pleasant.
The team also measured a person’s willingness to sacrifice for their partner and relational quiet ego. Relational quiet ego describes a state of reduced self-focus combined with greater perspective-taking and inclusivity within the relationship. To ensure shared awe was distinct from simply having fun together or doing novel things, the researchers also tracked shared amusement and the frequency of awe-related activities, such as visiting unfamiliar locations or attending collective events.
The results of the second study indicated that shared awe was a strong predictor of relationship satisfaction, even when accounting for shared amusement and the frequency of awe-related activities. Shared awe also positively predicted self-other overlap, willingness to sacrifice, relational quiet ego, and relationship flourishing.
The scientists analyzed how shared awe might link to relationship satisfaction through these different psychological pathways. They found that the association was primarily explained by indirect pathways involving relationship flourishing, self-other overlap, and a willingness to sacrifice. Relationship flourishing emerged as the strongest pathway, suggesting that shared awe is closely tied to a sense of shared meaning and relational growth. Relational quiet ego did not provide unique explanatory value in this specific model.
“I was surprised by how strongly shared awe was related to relationship flourishing,” Perini told PsyPost. “In our second study, shared awe alone accounted for about half of the variance in flourishing, which was considerably stronger than I had expected.”
“Sometimes these strong correlations are observed because two scales are very similar to each other, but in this case the two measures were substantially different, one about shared experiences of awe, and the other about meaning and growth in the relationship,” he explained.
Interestingly, when shared awe was accounted for, a person’s individual tendency to experience awe became negatively associated with relationship satisfaction.
“I would treat that particular finding cautiously until it is replicated, but it raises an interesting possibility,” Perini said. “Awe may be especially beneficial for a relationship when it becomes something partners share, rather than something one person primarily experiences outside the relationship.”
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2025, which found that awe promotes a deep sense of psychological overlap and unity with large social groups. The new study suggests a similar merging process happens on an interpersonal level between romantic partners.
“I wouldn’t translate this into ‘couples should constantly chase spectacular experiences,'” Perini noted. “But it does suggest that there may be value in making room for wonder together, whether through nature, art, music, travel, learning something new, spiritual experiences, or simply encountering something familiar in a different way.”
The data relied solely on self-reported questionnaires from one partner in the relationship. The authors recommended that future studies collect data from both partners to see how they might agree or differ in their perceptions of shared wonder.
The researchers also noted a few details about the study’s design that affect how the results can be interpreted. “The biggest caveat is that the two studies in this paper are cross-sectional and rely on self-report, so they cannot establish that shared awe causes better relationships,” Perini explained. “The reverse is also plausible: people who are already in satisfying and deeper relationships may simply be more likely to experience their lives together as awe-inspiring.”
“Since completing this work, however, we have also run a separate experiment in which dyads were exposed to awe, and we observed that participants in the awe condition were able to connect at a deeper level,” Perini said. “Those results are not part of the present paper and we are still preparing them for publication, but they provide experimental support for the broader idea that awe can affect interpersonal depth, rather than merely being correlated with it.”
Moving forward, the researchers hope to explore the exact role these shared emotional experiences play in long-term romantic bonds. Observing couples in their daily lives or testing awe-inducing activities over time could help determine whether awe fundamentally changes the level at which people reflect and connect.
“We are currently preparing another paper on what we call partner-induced awe: the experience of feeling awe toward one’s own romantic partner,” Perini said. “Our findings suggest that this may matter even in long-term relationships.”
“To me, this pushes against the idea that awe belongs only to spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, or that it is something we direct toward powerful or distant people,” he explained. “In long-term relationships, that capacity may be particularly valuable because familiarity can so easily turn into taking the other person for granted.”
The study, “United in wonder: shared awe is associated with satisfaction and depth in romantic relationships,” was authored by Matteo Perini, Lou Mier, Hein van Schie, Jasper de Groot, and Johan Karremans.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SharedAwe #RomanticRelationshipGoals #RelationshipSatisfaction #CouplesTherapy #AweInRelationships #RelationalDepth #SelfOtherOverlap #RelationshipFlourishing #MeaningTogether #RelationshipScience
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ICYMI: How Couples Therapy’s directors work to create empathy, not villainy https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2026/05/couples-therapy-season-5-directors-interview/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #CouplesTherapy #RealityTV
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How Couples Therapy’s directors work to create empathy, not villainy https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2026/05/couples-therapy-season-5-directors-interview/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #CouplesTherapy #RealityTV
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Paramount+ May 2026 Schedule: New Movies, TV Shows, & Sports
Link: https://film-book.com/paramount-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows-sports/?fsp_sid=192141
#AmericanMusicAwards #BattlestarGalactica #caprica #CIA #CouplesTherapy #CriminalMindsEvolution #DMV #DuttonRanch #FridayNightLights #GeorgieandMandy’sFirstMarriage #Marshals #NCIS #NCISOrigins #NCISSydney #Paramount #RuPaul’sDragRaceAllStars #SkyMed #Survivor #TheChi #TheNeighborhood #Tracker #TylerPerry’sZatima #UFC #Watson
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Ich jetzt meine Beziehungsberatungs-Website übersetzt und freue mich über Anfragen und Weiterverbreitung
I have translated my relationship counseling website, look forward to enquiries and would be happy for people to spread the word
• Deutsch: katharina-debus.de/beziehungsb…
• English: katharina-debus.de/relationshi…Ich biete Beziehungsberatung in Berlin und online für alle Geschlechterkonstellationen und alle einvernehmlichen Lebensweisen, Beziehungsmodelle und Sexualitäten. Wichtig ist mir, nicht mit Schablonen einer ‚guten‘ oder ‚richtigen‘ Beziehung zu arbeiten – weder entlang gesamtgesellschaftlicher Normalitätsvorstellungen noch entlang von Community-Normen –, sondern Umgangsweisen zu entwickeln, die zu den beteiligten Menschen passen. Mein Ziel ist die Unterstützung hin zu Beziehungen, die allen Beteiligten guttun und auch mit Herausforderungen umgehen können. Dabei arbeite ich vielfaltsorientiert, diskriminierungsreflektiert und herrschaftskritisch/machtkritisch.
I offer relationship counseling in Berlin and online for all gender constellations and all consensual relationship models and sexualities. Rather than working with templates of ‘good’ or ‘right’ relationships—either based on societal or community norms—I aim to support you to co-create approaches that correspond to your individual wishes, needs, and boundaries. My goal is to assist in fostering relationships that are beneficial to all involved and can also handle challenges. In this process, I appreciate diversity and strive to take into account and mitigate effects of discrimination, inequality and power imbalances on relationships.
#Beziehungsberatung #RelationshipCounseling #paarberatung #Paartherapie #couples-counseling #couples-therapy #bedürfnisorientiert #GeschlechtlicheVielfalt #SexuelleVielfalt #RomantischeVielfalt #queerinklusiv #queersensibel #queer #Beziehungsvielfalt #genderdiversity #sexualdiversity #romanticdiversity #relationshipdiversity #vielfaltsorientiert #Polyamorie #polyamory #ethischeNichtmonogamie #EthicalNonMonogamy #kink-aware #kinksensibel #kinkinklusiv #kinkinclusive #infektionsschutzsensibel #CovidCautious #diskriminierungssensibel #transinklusiv #geschlechterreflektiert #herrschaftskritisch #machtkritisch
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4 Ways Porn Use is Shaped by Relationship Fears
Originally Published on December 30th, 2025 at 11:58 amBeyond Addiction
When we talk about porn use, the conversation often gets stuck in simple, black-and-white narratives of morality or addiction. We tend to focus on how much someone is watching, rather than asking a more fundamental question: why? While these discussions are common, they often miss a deeper, more nuanced psychological story that’s playing out behind our screens.
What if our relationship with pornography isn’t just a habit, but a reflection of our most basic patterns of connecting with other people? This is the central idea behind attachment theory. It suggests that our earliest bonds with caregivers shape how we approach intimacy, trust, and emotional closeness throughout our lives. These deep-seated patterns are known as our “attachment style.”
A recent systematic review of 10 scientific studies has begun to connect these dots. It’s uncovered surprising links between our attachment styles and our pornography habits.
This article explores the four most impactful takeaways from that research.
It reveals how our fundamental needs for connection, and our fears of rejection, can shape what happens when we’re alone with a screen.
1. For some men, porn use is linked to better relationship satisfaction
Attachment styles are patterns in how we connect with others, stemming from our early life experiences. “Anxious attachment” style, for example, creates a deep desire for intimacy but lives with a persistent fear of rejection or abandonment.
Counterintuitively, one major study reviewed by the researchers (Maas et al., 2018) found that for men with this anxious attachment style, porn use was actually associated with higher relationship satisfaction.
This finding becomes even more striking when contrasted with the results for women in the same study.
For anxiously attached women, porn use was associated with lower relationship satisfaction.
This sharp gender difference underscores a crucial point: the effects of pornography are not one-size-fits-all.
They are deeply intertwined with our individual psychology, our gender, and our attachment style. This suggests that for anxious men, pornography might act as a low-stakes supplement that doesn’t trigger their core fear of abandonment. Whereas, for anxious women, it may directly activate it.
Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?
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2. Problematic porn use can be a way to cope with a fear of real intimacy
The review highlights a powerful theme: for those with insecure attachment styles, pornography offers a sense of connection without the perceived risks of real-world emotional intimacy.
This is particularly true for individuals with an avoidant attachment style. They often fear being engulfed by a relationship and losing their independence. Research shows that for this group, addictive cybersex use can become a direct substitute for the emotional closeness they find threatening.
While both anxious and avoidant individuals may turn to pornography, their motivations often differ.
Someone with an avoidant style might use it to replace an intimacy they fear. However, someone with an anxious style might use it to soothe anxiety about a connection they crave.
In both cases, porn use can become a substitute for genuine connection when real relationships feel too overwhelming.
The review synthesizes this concept perfectly:
When people with insecure attachments use pornography to satisfy their relational needs of comfort, they engage in little or less emotional closeness and commitment, which allays their worries of abandonment and separation.
This reframes problematic use not merely as an addiction, but as a potentially maladaptive strategy for managing deep-seated relational fears of either being left alone or being consumed by another.
Licensed Professional Counselors, do you need continuing education hours?
Look no further!
If you find this article interesting, Dr. Weeks’ course Sexual Education and Porn Use in Women, and her other unique courses, will engage and educate!
3. For anxiously attached women, porn use is linked to body insecurity; specifically when they’re in a relationship
Another study in the review (Gerwitz-Meydan et al., 2021) uncovered a highly specific link for women with an anxious attachment style.
For these women, an association between their attachment style and porn use was found only if they were currently in a relationship. For single women with the same attachment style, there was no significant association.
The research identified a crucial factor driving this connection: body image self-consciousness. The study found that pornography use acted as a mediator between anxious attachment and body image issues.
In simple terms, this means that for anxiously attached women in a relationship, viewing pornography may trigger or intensify insecurities about their own bodies.
This, in turn, can activate their underlying attachment-related fears of being inadequate for their partner. Porn use directly threatens their sense of security and stoking their core fear of abandonment.
Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.
4. There’s a psychological link between ADHD, both anxious and avoidant attachment, and compulsive porn use.
The review also sheds light on the intersection of attachment, neurodiversity, and pornography.
One study (Niazof et al., 2019) found that problematic pornography use in men with ADHD was linked to both anxious and avoidant attachment styles, but in different ways.
Higher levels of anxious attachment were linked to excessive pornography use, while avoidant attachment was associated with higher levels of problematic use.
The researchers point to a potential explanation for this link: the “incentive deficit” that is often a characteristic of ADHD.
This concept suggests that individuals with ADHD may be more drawn to highly stimulating, novel, and instantly gratifying behaviors. It helps ADHD porn users to compensate for a brain that may be under-stimulated by everyday rewards.
When combined with insecure attachment, this creates a potent mix.
For the anxiously attached man with ADHD, pornography might serve as an easily accessible tool to soothe relational anxiety.
For the avoidantly attached man with ADHD, it may be a compelling substitute for the real-world intimacy he fears. It fulfills a need for stimulation without triggering his fear of closeness.
Conclusion: Beyond How Much to Why
The research clearly shows that our relationship with pornography is more complex than self-control or moral standing.
It can be a powerful and often unconscious reflection of our deepest relational patterns. It reveals our unmet needs for connection, and our most profound fears of intimacy and rejection.
This perspective invites us to shift the conversation.
Instead of focusing solely on the behavior itself, perhaps the more important question to ask is: What deeper needs and fears is this behavior trying to meet?
Share how this post spoke to you, or about someone you love. Do you believe you use pornography to compensate for your attachment style? Why or why not?
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.
Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.
#ADHDAndPornUse #anxiousAttachment #attachmentStyles #attachmentTheory #avoidantAttachment #bodyImageInsecurity #compulsivePornUse #couplesTherapy #cybersexAddiction #emotionalIntimacy #fearOfAbandonment #fearOfRejection #intimacyIssues #mentalHealth #pornUse #pornographyUse #problematicPornUse #relationalCoping #relationshipFears #relationshipSatisfaction #sexualHealth #shameAndSecrecy #trustAndConnection -
Köpte en månad Sky Showtime för 59:- för att kolla Couples Therapy. Det är alltså odramatiserad parterapi som filmas. Ja jag tycker det är kul 🤓
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Painful reading.
My first thought before reading the article was to wonder why on earth this couple had agreed to have their couples therapy televised.
Then I read that the couple made very little money, so the offer of a free sessions with a therapist who regularly charges $700 an hour must have been difficult to resist. As the husband/author writes, "I wanted to save my marriage. I was desperate for help."
I won't dissect the whole article but will instead note a couple of more general thoughts.
Much of the unhappiness in this marriage can be traced to the continual changes in residence, prompted in turn by scarce job prospects and insecurity in employment. One of the most ugly consequences of the neoliberal political economy pushed by "family values" conservatives is not just the wreckage of marriages by economic insecurity, but the insidious pressure on couples turn inwards and blame each other for problems generated by social forces.
Contra Margaret Thatcher, there IS such a thing as society, and a deeply inequitable society can warp intimate relationships and destroy families.
Fitting in horribly with this antisocial individualism is the deference accorded to "therapy" by so many Americans . All too often a mishmash of self help nostrums, poorly grounded popular psychology, and moralistic bullying is offered as a panacea to both individual and social problems.
Of course, psychotherapists have a legitimate function in modern society, but, in the US in particular, "therapy" has become something like a religion to a significant portion of the population. Consequently I often - as I do now - feel the stirrings of the functional equivalent of anticlericalism within my breast.
I am not recommending a turn to the "traditional" way of life advocated by conservatives. I would just plead for a turn to the social rather than the constant reduction of all problems to those of individual psychology.
Here, the combination of therapy with voyeuristic TV, itself a product of a ratings chase shaped by neoliberal values, turns out to be disastrous.
#CouplesTherapy #Therapy #Relationships #USCulture #Neoliberalism
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Dr. Orna Guralnik Reflects on the Ethics of Practicing ‘Couples Therapy’ on TV
#Variety #News #CouplesTherapy #OrnaGuralnik #StrictlyBusiness -
Following a 30% rise in viewership for Season 4, Showtime has renewed "Couples Therapy" for a fifth season.
#CouplesTherapy #SHOWTIME #ParamountPlus #Entertainment #Television #TV #Streaming
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‘Couples Therapy’ Renewed For Season 5 By Showtime
#CancellationsandRenewals #News #CouplesTherapy #ParamountWithShowtime #Showtimehttps://deadline.com/2025/06/couples-therapy-renewed-season-showtime-1236425806/
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‘Couples Therapy’ Renewed for Season 5 at Showtime
#Variety #News #CouplesTherapy #ParamountWithShowtimehttps://variety.com/2025/tv/news/couples-therapy-renewed-season-5-showtime-1236421252/
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Check out our latest post on @psychologytoday.com -- it's about the effectiveness of individual therapy and couples therapy in combination #couplestherapy #mentalhealth #tacos www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dude...
How to Use Individual Therapy ... -
Check out our latest @psychologytoday.com article -- it's about the difference between how we treat our partners versus how we treat our children #mentalhealth #CouplesTherapy #tacos www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dude...
Can Good Parenting Skills Ease... -
The latest excerpt from How to Win at Couples Therapy #htwact is up at @psychtoday.bsky.social -- Relationship Ruptures are inevitable; it's how we repair them that counts #couplestherapy #MentalHealth #tacos Rupture and Repair | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dude...
Relationship Rupture and Repai... -
If you've never been to couples counseling before, you might not know what to expect.
Read more 👉 https://lttr.ai/AeEDx
#CouplesTherapy #Therapy #Counseling #Mentalhealth #CouplesTherapyChicago #Chicago #CouplesCounseling
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‘Couples Therapy’ Season 4 Part 2 Sets Release Date, Debuts New Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)
#Variety #News #CouplesTherapy #DocumentariestoWatch #Emmys #Paramounthttps://variety.com/2025/tv/news/couples-therapy-season-4-part-2-trailer-release-date-1236368968/
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Check out this chapter from my new book How to Win at Couples Therapy, up on the wonderful @psychologytoday.com website -- and if you like it, check out the whole book on Amazon #couplestherapy #mentalhealth #tacos Relationship Tennis | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dude...
Relationship Tennis -
NEW STORY, for all you frustrated lovers out there. Bit stressed out? Impatient, quick to anger? This little charmer will take a bite out of all your troubles. EMOMO, by Liam Hogan.
https://fabulistmagazine.com/emomo/
#argument
#couplestherapy
#shortstory
#hedgehog
#speculativefiction -
Dancing Through Love: Exploring Culture-Based Couples Therapy
#CouplesTherapy #Mentalizing #CulturalUnderstanding #ReflectiveFunctioning #SharedIntentionality #LoveJourney #CognitiveEmpathy #Mindfulness #RelationshipGoals #PsychologyInLove #EmotionalConnection #CouplesGrowth #AdaptiveFlexibility #LoveAndPsychology #HealthyRelationships
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The Power of Emotional Contagion in Relationships: Understanding Shared Feelings
#EmotionalContagion #Relationships #CouplesTherapy #FamilyDynamics #EmotionalIntelligence #MentalHealth #EmotionalExhaustion #Neuroscience #Connection #Therapy #SharedEmotions #HealthyRelationships #Empathy #EmotionalWellbeing
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Emotional reactivity associated with better outcomes for new romantic couples https://www.psypost.org/emotional-reactivity-associated-with-better-outcomes-for-new-romantic-couples/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #EmotionalIntelligence #RelationshipGoals #NewLove #CouplesTherapy #StressManagement
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Want less conflict in your relationship? Try this simple perspective shift https://www.psypost.org/want-less-conflict-in-your-relationship-try-this-simple-perspective-shift/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #RelationshipGoals #MentalHealth #ConflictResolution #HealthyRelationships #CouplesTherapy
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Psychologists pinpoint a subtle sign of relationship quality https://www.psypost.org/psychologists-pinpoint-a-subtle-sign-of-relationship-quality/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #RelationshipAdvice #Psychology #CouplesTherapy #EmotionalConnection #SmileSynchrony
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Does anybody really know what time it is?
My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #929 https://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2025/01/my-entry-in-new-yorker-cartoon-caption_01316600095.html #MortGerberg #Clock #Psychotherapy #CouplesTherapy #TheNewYorker #Cartoon #CaptionContest
