When silence is used to manage conflict in an intimate partnership, misunderstanding and increased emotional distance are likely. Stonewalling in relationships can also cause one or both partners to experience anxiety or depression, and may lead ultimately to separation.

Emotional availability is a critical component of an intimate relationship. To be available to another in this way includes being able to appropriately express emotion, maintain good personal boundaries and trust others with personal vulnerabilities.

Many couples meet through common friends, work colleagues or family members. Parenting companions often support a couple during the years of raising children. Maintaining existing connections and forming new ones outside the relationship provides important support in long term relationships.

Couples frequently seek counseling because infidelity has crept into their relationship. If the relationship is to continue, the partner who has been unfaithful must be transparent about the transgression and must empathize with the feelings that the partner experiences.

COVID 19 is changing the sexual behaviors of adults. On average both individuals in committed relationships and single adults are engaging in less sex. Adults of all ages are also adding new sexual behaviors due to stress and loneliness in the pandemic.

We are all struggling to adapt as social distancing stretches into months. Couples with young children, who may both also be balancing remote employment, seem particularly challenged to manage the everyday frustrations of family life as they stay at home.

Many young couples today struggle to determine whether to have children, what the time frame should be, and whether they can even afford the children they desire. They worry about the world their children will be entering. Despite the uncertainties, remaining hopeful and positive can help.