Smart Relationships (ePub)

Do you have trouble maintaining healthy relationships? Do you feel like your partner is speaking Chinese, while you are speaking French? Do you try in vain to break bad habits? Do you wonder why you seem to make the same mistakes over and over? In Smart Relationships, Joan Chamberlain guides the reader on a tour of themselves. Joan begins by describing the four basic personality types:1. Comfort2. Pleasing3. Control4. SuperiorityNo one can be neatly crammed into a little box, but we all have aspects of these basic personality types. By figuring out which of these personality types are dominant in you, examining your values and beliefs, and learning what type of a thinker you are, you will begin to: Understand why you behave as you do. Learn to recognize your hidden motives and understand where they come from. Learn to stay present to yourself and others. Get acquainted with defenses, both yours and other's. Be clear how to handle those defenses. Broaden and deepen your understanding of yourself and the ones you love. Learn how to love and accept yourself; then, be happy to give that love and acceptance to others. Joan Chamberlain has been a couples and family therapist for over 30 years, and has helped countless people to know themselves and their loved ones better, enriching their lives and relationships permanently. She breaks down unhealthy beliefs and helps clients to build newer, stronger ones that can provide the framework for a lifetime of personal growth. ______________________"e;For anyone presently in therapy, or doing personal growth work on their own, this book offers some wonderful tools to help implement more rapid self-understanding and fulfillment."e;- Hal Zina Bennett, Ph.D., author of Follow Your Bliss"e;I first visited Joan Chamberlain when I was fourteen years old. I am now twenty-eight, and for over half my life I have depended on her counsel and guidance to help me through the hardest times I've experienced and the toughest decisions I have had to make. As a youth, I had opportunity to appreciate her warmth and compassion, and now as an adult I have grown to appreciate her honesty and keen insight into the layers of personality, belief, and relationship that make each of us who we are. Joan is a very professional counselor and skilled author, but more importantly she is a skilled observer, teacher, and friend."e;- Edward"e;We can't thank you enough for the gift of you in our lives. Your wisdom and patience has provided the window for us to learn, change, and grow in countless ways."e;- Corrine and Karen"e;Because of your help, I am able to be restored and start anew. Will and I thank you."e;- Anna"e;We are forever in your debt for not only saving our marriage, but making it and us better than we ever knew it/we could be."e;- Catherine and Mark"e;I am writing to say thank you for being in my life and helping me become the person I am today. The many hours I spent in your office were invaluable, though painful at the time, worth every tear that was shed! I cannot imagine what would have become of me had I not been blessed with you coming into my life. I am eternally grateful to you."e;- Susan"e;Joan Chamberlain is a godsend. My wife and I would still be stuck in one spot, racing at top speed but going nowhere, if it weren't for her. It is because of her that our future is no longer some uncertain, scary eventuality that we hurtle toward, terrified. She has a way of cutting right through the nonsense to the very heart of our issues, guiding us firmly - but with great care - toward a happier and more fulfilled us."e;- Rick and Meg