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Join us for a workshop presented by Student Counseling Services to learn essential life skills for fostering and strengthening relationships. Explore the importance of connection, types of relationships, aspects of friendship, rules for friends, and stages of relationship development. Discover how to achieve mutual intimacy in communication and the characteristics of close relationships. Understand the dynamics of successful marriages and different styles of marriages, including validating, volatile, and avoidant. Gain insights into emotional ecology, warning signs of unhealthy marriages, and strategies for improving communication. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your relationship-building skills and create lasting connections in your life.
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Strengthening Relationships A Life Skills Workshop Presented by Student Counseling Services
“Friendship is not won by the giving of things, but by the giving of the heart.” --- Roy Lessin
Relationship: the state of being related. Related: 1. connected by some understood relationship. 2. connected through membership in the same family. The key is CONNECTION.
Relationship Assumptions • Successful relationships are basic to successful living. • Keeping relationships healthy deserves a high priority. • Your marriage or significant other is your most important relationship. • You can learn to understand how to make your relationship work.
Types of Relationships • Family relationships • Occasional (“anonymous”) relationships – clerks, waiters • Casual relationships (acquaintances) – some people at work, professors, classmates • Friendships – people with whom you seek interactions, whose company you enjoy • Romantic relationships – passionate, emotional connection, usually reciprocal
Aspects of Friendship • Keeps confidence • Loyalty • Warmth/affection • Supportiveness • Frankness • Sense of humor • Willingness to make time for me • Independence • Good conversationalist • Intelligence • Social conscience
Six Rules for Friends • Share news of success with a friend. • Show emotional support. • Volunteer help in time of need. • Strive to make a friend happy when in each other’s company. • Trust and confide in each other. • Stand up for a friend in his/her absence.
Development of a Close Relationship • Zero contact • Stage 1: unilateral contact • Stage 2: bilateral contact • Stage 3: mutuality
Intimacy in Communication Person 1 Person 2 Cliché Conversation
Intimacy in Communication Person 1 Person 2 Cliché Facts, Conversation Other’s Ideas
Intimacy in Communication Person 1 Person 2 Cliché Facts, Your Conversation Other’s Ideas Ideas & Opinions
Intimacy in Communication Person 1 Person 2 Cliché Facts, Your Personal Conversation Other’s Ideas Information Ideas & Opinions
Intimacy in Communication Person 1 Person 2 Cliché Facts, Your Personal Feelings Conversation Other’s Ideas Information About Each Ideas & Opinions Other Now
Close Relationships • Relatively long-lasting • Frequent interaction • Mutual activities • Impact of interactions is strong
“Marriage is not just a ‘happily ever after’ ending, but a lifetime of ‘I choose to love you’ beginnings.” --- Matt Anderson
Why Marriages Succeed or Fail Dr. John Gottman
“A lasting marriage results from a couple’s ability to resolve the conflicts that are inevitable in any relationship.”
Styles of Marriages • Validating • Volatile • Avoidant
Validating • Listen and understand each partner’s point of view • Value other while disagreeing • more like problem-solving discussions • negotiate compromises • Value “we-ness” of relationship • Risk: passionless arrangement
Volatile • Fight on grand scale--make up on grand scale • Highly engaged with each other • See selves as equal parties in relationship • Easily express feelings, opinions, & thoughts • Risk: slide into too much fighting
Avoidant • Conflict minimizers • Agree to disagree--shove it under the rug • Low level of companionship • High degree of autonomy • Risk: Encountering problem too big to avoid
Emotional Ecology • Need to strike a balance of positive/negative • magic ratio: 5 to 1 • Healthy marriages represent three ways of adapting to achieve the balance • Unhealthy marriages which do not adapt can be recognized by warning signs: • “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”
Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse • Criticism • Contempt • Defensiveness • Stonewalling
Criticism • Attacking someone’s personality rather than behavior • Blaming & accusing • “You…” statements • Different from Complaining • “I…” statements • Present to a degree in all relationships
Contempt • Criticism with intention • deeper, more personal attack • Includes • insults & name-calling • hostile humor & mockery • body language • Results in decay of admiration or positive feelings for partner
Defensiveness • Elicited by criticism & contempt • Includes: • denying responsibility --making excuses • disagreeing with mind reading --yes-butting • cross complaining --Rubber man/woman • repeating self --whining • Result: obstructs communication--conflict escalates
Stonewalling • Communication shutdown • Conveys disapproval, disgust, smugness • Found in men more than women
Cycle of Negativity • Four horsemen are hard to tame • If unchecked, downward spiral/cascade occurs • Flooding occurs--system overload • Chronic flooding leads to distance/isolation cascade
Strategy for Improvement • Calm down • Speak nondefensively • Validating Partner • Overlearning--try & try again