The pandemic is creating unique challenges for couples, even those with happy relationships. What does it mean to thrive during difficult and fearful times? With so much uncertainty as we watch and hear about the numbers of people whose lives are at stake, and many others who have been lost to COVID-19, fear is expressed…
Read MoreThis blog was originally posted at YourTango and is reposted here with permissions. Here’s how to tell if sex therapy is right for you. How many people have you known who confided in you that they went to a sex therapist or were considering sex therapy for intimacy problems in their marriage? For many people,…
Read MoreDr. Rita DeMaria is a staff therapist, office director, and director of Healthy Relationships and Wellness Programs at Council for Relationships. The Intersystem Approach is an integrative and dialectical meta-framework, which explores how individuals, couples, family systems and communities are functioning in their relationships with self and others. These four domains constitute a comprehensive approach…
Read MoreYes, you can love someone for a lifetime, but you need the knowledge and skills to maintain and grow the relationship. It’s not how much you love each other that strengthens a long-term relationship; it’s how you resolve differences and preserve fun and sensuality. Luckily, everyone can learn, practice, and improve their relationship skills. Later…
Read MoreEvery month, Council for Relationships highlights one of our Staff Therapists on the Expert Voices blog. Rita DeMaria, PhD, LMFT, CST was named this month’s featured Staff Therapist. Learn more about Dr. DeMaria in the quick introduction below. How did you become a therapist? My interest in helping people with personal problems began when I was…
Read MoreAt Council for Relationships, our Staff Therapists come from diverse backgrounds that have shaped their clinical practices. Staff Therapist Rita DeMaria, PhD, LMFT, CST spent her young life abroad in Japan, Ethiopia, and Turkey as her family moved around to accommodate her father’s military career. Read in her own words how this experience shaped her…
Read MoreStaff Therapist Dr. Rita DeMaria, PhD, LMFT, CST specializes in working with individuals and couples who are struggling with relationship, marital and sexual issues. You meet the right person and fall in love, you marry and live happily ever after… Or do you? Finding Mr. or Ms. Right is a story many of us long…
Read MoreDr. Rita DeMaria is a staff therapist and Director of Healthy Relationships and Wellness at Council for Relationships. With Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s a perfect time for couples to assess the sensuality and intimacy levels in their relationship. Many couples put their intimate sensual and sexual relationship on the back burner and then wonder…
Read MoreWhat seems like a tough situation today might actually be the best doorway to love and success. Everyone wants to be happy; it is a universal need. With today’s speed-it-up pace of life and the daily distractions that we face, we must be smarter about the pursuit of happiness. In my grandmother’s day, life was…
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