Synopses & Reviews
Based on years of counseling, research, and success stories, Dr. Greg Smalley teaches us how to use marital conflict as a way to deepen and strengthen our relationships.Every married couple fights. But how you and your spouse deal with hot-button issues speaks volumes about the health of your marriage. Dr. Greg Smalley explains how conflict can provide an opportunity to break old, ineffective patterns and lead to greater trust (and intimacy) once you get to the other side. It can also reduce tension as emotions are vented and stress is released.
Smalley teaches that conflict is driven mostly by fear—the fear of being disrespected or taken for granted, the fear of powerlessness, and the fear of rejection or inadequacy. What can assuage these fears, he says, are intimacy, respect, validation, love, and connection. If conflict is poorly managed, issues can explode like a massive volcano, leaving spouses and family members in its wake of destruction.
Written with a candid and inspirational approach, Fight Your Way to a Better Marriage will give you all the practical answers, tips, exercises, and inspirational stories you need to have a fulfilling, happy, trusting, and intimate relationship.
Synopsis
Based on years of counseling, research, and success stories, Dr. Greg Smalley teaches us how to use marital conflict as a way to deepen and strengthen our relationships.
In this counterintuitive book, author Dr. Greg Smalley maintains that fighting is actually good for a marriage. When couples fight, they have the opportunity to get to the real issue that is lurking below the surface of fights about money, sex, in-laws, kids, etc. And that real issue, Dr. Smalley says, is fear--fear of rejection, inadequacy, or powerlessness, to name a few. What assuages these fears are things like intimacy, respect, validation, love, and connection. Learning to take advantage of the opportunity that conflict provides is what this book is all about.
The good news of Fight Your Way to a Better Marriage is that conflict--when handled correctly--is the doorway to intimacy and understanding. As Dr. Smalley leads readers through the many faces of conflict, he is open and candid about his own marriage and the unproductive fights he and his wife have had. He uses his fears and emotional triggers as examples to help readers discover their own.
Couples will learn how to fight their way to a better marriage, using the skills, concepts, and exercises shared in this remarkable book.
Synopsis
In this counterintuitive book, author Dr. Greg Smalley maintains that fighting is actually good for a marriage. When couples fight, they have the opportunity to get to the real issue that is lurking below the surface of fights about money, sex, in-laws, kids, etc. And that real issue, Dr. Smalley says, is fear—fear of rejection, inadequacy, or powerlessness, to name a few. What assuages these fears are things like intimacy, respect, validation, love, and connection. Learning to take advantage of the opportunity that conflict provides is what this book is all about.
The good news of Fight Your Way to a Better Marriage is that conflict—when handled correctly—is the doorway to intimacy and understanding. As Dr. Smalley leads readers through the many faces of conflict, he is open and candid about his own marriage and the unproductive fights he and his wife have had. He uses his fears and emotional triggers as examples to help readers discover their own.
Couples will learn how to fight their way to a better marriage, using the skills, concepts, and exercises shared in this remarkable book.
About the Author
Dr. Greg Smalley serves as Executive Director of Marriage and Family Formation at Focus on the Family. Prior to joining Focus, Smalley worked for the Center for Relationship Enrichment at John Brown University and as president of the National Institute of Marriage. He is the author of eleven books, including The DNA of Relationships, The DNA of Parent and Teen Relationships, and The Wholehearted Marriage. Greg lives in Colorado with his wife Erin and their four children.