Confidence is.. IntimateEssentials

by: Brad & Latoya Cheathon

Every couple has a story.

It’ s not always a story of happy moments, happy memories, or happily ever after. Sometimes it’ s angry arguments, ugly crying, and feeling a loss of hope that it will ever change.

When you ’ re faced with yet another conflict with your partner, what do you do? How do you turn the situation around?

According to the Gottman Institute, “Sixty-nine percent of relationship conflict is about perpetual problems. All couples have them. ” https://www.gottman.com/blog/managing-conflict-solvable-vs-perpetual-problems/

We have to recognize that in each relationship, there are two different people, from two different households, with two different perspectives on a lot of things- and we ’ re trying to do life in the same space. So naturally there ’ s going to be conflict. But sometimes it’ s okay to agree to disagree. Agreeing to disagree can be challenging, though, because as humans, we all want to feel heard, understood, and validated by our partners. ….And, we pretty much want them to agree with us, if we ’ re honest. However, sometimes they just can ’t agree with us because we have fundamentally different views on things, and completely different personalities. So many couples spend hours, days and months arguing over surface-level issues and principalities that are statistically shown to be unresolvable.

And that’ s where we come in. We are Brad and LaToya Cheathon, and we are a husband and wife team and our business is The Couples Wellness Spot. Brad is a Certified Life Coach, and LaToya is a Relationship Coach, and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, specializing in working with couples. Together we provide 2-on-2 Relationship Coaching services to couples across the country, as well as weekend retreats for groups of couples or individual couples. Our focus is to help partners get deeper, down to the emotional needs underneath those surface-level disagreements. We help them transform their relationship using activities and conversations designed to strengthen intimacy, improve conflict resolution, and build connection.

Each month, we will be right here, providing Confidence Is... readers with practical tips, communication skills, and conflict resolution tools for your toolbox. Just like in our coaching sessions, it’ s nice to be able to give both perspectives on topics, since we will be writing together. So, whether you are the person who wants to keep talking during an argument, or the one who prefers to “keep the peace ” and avoid conflict altogether- we have something for you. You can learn more about our story, and even take our “What’ s Your Conflict Style ” quiz at www.thecoupleswellnessspot.com. We are looking forward to sharing our lived and learned experience with you all to help you on your relationship journey.