Getting Over Heartbreak



To love openly and honestly requires vulnerability creating the potential for heartbreak if a relationship founders.  In this episode, Alvean and Doug talk about the grieving process that occurs when a relationship ends and talk about the ways in which one can use the experience to learn and grow stronger.  For more and a complete transcript, click here:LL14


Surviving Infidelity



It is one of the hardest trials to overcome, when someone with whom you are in relationship violates trust and cheats.  Can love survive this offense or is everything poisoned forever?  Alvean and Doug talk about the redemptive power of forgiveness and the steps one must take to find a way back to a loving, honest and abiding relationship. For a full transcript, click here: LL12


Cross Cultural Relationships



Whether it’s a difference of race, religion, nationality or any other cultural divide, relationships can get more interesting and sometimes more complicated when the partners come from different backgrounds.  Alvean and Doug talk about the hurdles and the ways in which they can be surmounted in this episode.  For more and a full transcript, click here: LL10


Blending Families



When children are involved relationships get more complicated and especially when those children are from a prior marriage.  How and when to blend two families is a critical question deserving of patience and tact–especially if there are exes involved who are birth parents.  In this episode, Alvean and Doug take on the many issues surrounding blended families and offer some counsel about how to approach it.  For more and a full transcript, click here: LL09


When the woman makes more



Many of us were raised in a traditional family structure and are used to the idea that the man in the family is the breadwinner. In today’s world that assumption can be a presumption as women take their rightful place in the working world and attain positions that compensate them at levels that may be more–even a good deal more than their partner.  In a perfect world that should not be an issue but it can result in some friction if it is not addressed early and both partners have a healthy sense of self esteem. In this episode Alvean and Doug explore the ways in which couples can navigate this arrangement successfully.  For more and a complete transcript click here: LL08


Am I too Picky?



Maybe you’ve heard a friend say it, or perhaps said it yourself:  Why can’t I find a good man, a good women?  Are they all taken, or are your requirements simply too picky?  Alvean and Doug unpack the question in this episode and explore the reasons we find some people attractive and others not so much–and how we can sometimes sabotage ourselves by finding faults that may or may not exist even before a relationship has a chance of getting started.  For more and a full transcript click here: LL07


The Best Way to Say Goodbye



Breaking up a relationship is never easy and it shouldn’t be, after all at one time you both were in love or thought you were.  Regardless of the reasons for ending it, there is a right and a wrong way to go about it.  In this episode Alvean and Doug offer some insight and suggestions about how to minimize the pain for both of you.  For more and a full transcript, click here: LL06