Are You Addicted to Facebook? (6) By Dr. Michael Brooks

Is Facebook controlling your life?

Are You Addicted to Facebook? (2) By Dr. Michael Brooks

Are You Addicted to Facebook? (1) By Dr. Michael Brooks

Internet and social networks replace live communication. Facebook is a real threat to many relationships within the family – horizontal

If You’re Considering Divorce (3)

By Dr. Michael Brooks

Many relationships have failed because of the lack of communication and lack of commitment to work on the relationship. The longer you delay, the more damage there will be, and the possibility that your marriage will come to an end is likely. Confronting your spouse is not a bad thing – doing absolutely nothing is. You need a game plan when you talk to your spouse/partner. If you accuse them without knowing what you’re going to say, then you’re headed for trouble. More and more relationships have ended from social media websites than ever before. If you are tempted to look up an old boyfriend or girlfriend, don’t. There is no reason to risk hurting your relationship with your spouse/partner by looking for past loves. Protect that relationship you’re in, guard it and enjoy it! Trying to rekindle a relationship with an old flame never works, especially if you’re in a committed relationship.

Emotional affairs are more common than ever!

Here are my tips for confronting someone caught cheating in an emotional and physical affair:

• Have the evidence printed out or show them the text
• Do it in a place that has privacy (no children)
• Do not accuse without proof; it’s just hearsay until they can see text
• Witnesses that are willing to admit they saw your spouse with another person
• Try to have a civil discussion, do not physically touch the other person out of anger, do not emotionally or verbally abuse your spouse. All these things can be used against you in court. If at all possible record your talk with your spouse/partner.
• Get counseling for the both of you and see if the marriage can be salvaged one way or another. If not then next step is to consult with a lawyer and see what you need to do to move forward.
• If the cheating spouse cannot admit to having an emotional or physical affair with your proof, then talk to a lawyer.

The lack of love, common interests, no passion, and unrealistic expectations are big reasons why divorces are so high. These are considered major distractions in marriage and are the most repairable fixes yet can be so annoying to the one who wants the marriage to work. Believe it or not falling out of love with your spouse is one of the leading causes for divorce. It’s actually ahead of emotional and physical abuse. Affairs used to top the list of reasons for divorce, but couples are making more attempts in salvaging their marriages from infidelity. Healing for couples from infidelity is on the rise, couples are now wanting to fix the problem instead of giving up on the relationship.

Falling out of love requires self-reflection from each person, why are we falling out of love? I say it’s a slow process and not immediate. You grow apart slowly and don’t realize it. You find other distractions in your life, usually centered around people or activities. If you feel that you’re drifting apart from your spouse, NOW is the time to act and do something about it. Sit down with your spouse/partner and talk about your feelings. This falling out of love is not a death sentence but a wake-up call that should not be ignored. A healthy relationship has periods of where you like to be close and do things together, and there will be times that you like alone time or time with your friends. If you have a tendency to want to be alone and avoid spending time with your spouse, this is a warning indicator you better connect with your spouse and get some help. If you need to figure out what your next steps are and need counseling/coaching call my office and I can help you.

Do you suspect that you’re falling out of love with your spouse? Do you feel like your relationship is drifting apart? Has the lack of love in your relationship caused your spouse/partner to cheat on you by using Facebook or Classmates.com? Have you seen the signs of them spending time texting excessively or on the computer? Do you need help in confronting your spouse/partners suspicious behavior? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to contact Dr. Mike and set up an appointment. Don’t allow an old love to destroy your relationship. If your marriage has been threatened by or has ended because of a social media affair and you need someone to talk to, or need help in overcoming the pain you’re going through, please call Dr. Mike at 303.880.9878. He can help you. He has helped several people through the process of a broken relationship caused by social media infidelity.

Dr. Michael Brooks is the founder of Applicable Counseling and life coaching Services. It is affordable, accessible, anonymous and available by appointment from the privacy of your home. To avoid travel time and the comfort of home, many clients prefer to meet with Dr. Mike over the phone or via Skype (if you want to Skype with Dr. Mike send him an email at mbrooks3353@gmail.com to set up an appointment). The convenience of this type of Counseling/Coaching is the most effective means of Life Coaching for those who live outside of Colorado. Give Dr. Mike a call! You’ll be glad you did!

If You’re Considering Divorce (2)

By Dr. Michael Brooks

This week we will continue the article on “if you’re considering divorce.” The following weeks will have some insights on how to repair your relationship if this is a problem. Another example is a recent client of mine told me about how his wife had reconnected with an old boyfriend from high school through Facebook. They hadn’t seen each other in 38 years and considered each other their “first love.” As we all know, a “first love” is a strong bond to break especially when there was physical intimacy involved. He told me that her old boyfriend found her on Facebook and sent her a friend request. She responded back by telling him she was married and had four children. He wanted to hear more about her life and what she had been doing all those 38 years through texting. Unbeknownst to her, he had been divorced twice and was planning on getting involved with her.

Before you file for divorce, you better have facts.

Eventually realizing through getting reconnected with her ex-boyfriend, her marriage seemed unfulfilling, and unfortunately, she shared that with her ex-boyfriend. He was an engineer and had been divorced for three years. He wanted to reconnect with her, and she thought it would be nice to see him too. So she traveled to Ohio to meet him and never told her husband where she was going.

She packed her bags for a supposedly “weekend getaway” with some of her girlfriends from work. When she returned from the trip, she told her husband of 30+ years that she was divorcing him. She wanted out and had talked to a lawyer about putting the divorce together. She also told their grown children that she was divorcing their father and told all kinds of lies about him for the reasons she was leaving. She also told the children that he was unfaithful and abusive towards her. The lies got even worse the more time she spent with her old flame talking on the phone and chatting on Facebook. With her lies, she turned her children, family, and friends against him. The lies were so destructive and painful he nearly had a nervous breakdown. He begged, pleaded, groveled, wept and cried to get her back. She destroyed this man’s life because of an affair she wanted and tried to justify it with her lies. This woman was very deceitful and filled bitter feelings towards her husband. When I met with this man at my office, he was beside himself.

He had nowhere to turn, and his children wanted nothing to do with him. His wife hated him and was bent on taking him down. He asked me, “Dr. Mike, where do I go from here? I have done nothing that she has accused me of. I have been faithful to her and loved her, but she always seemed unhappy. I’ve tried talking with her, planning vacations, etc., but it just never worked out. I even asked her to go to marriage counseling, which she refused. I know I wasn’t a perfect husband, but I tried everything possible to make her happy. “

He told me that he found out who the guy was, what kind of job he had and the type of people he was involved with. He also knew how many times he was divorced and even current relationships the man was involved in. He had all the emails they sent each other with the time and date stamps on them. He wanted to know why another man would take his wife away, knowing full-well she was still married. That was a fair question. Relationships can be so complex! They are hard to understand at times. “Who should get the blame,” he asked me? I told him, “They both should. He shares in the equal responsibility. The reason you feel it’s more your wife’s fault is that she is the focal point of your pain.” If you suspect that your spouse/partner is reconnecting with a former girlfriend, boyfriend, lover, etc., you need to confront them immediately.

 Do you suspect that you’re falling out of love with your spouse? Do you feel like your relationship is drifting apart? Has the lack of love in your relationship caused your spouse/partner to cheat on you by using Facebook or Classmates.com? Have you seen the signs of them spending time texting excessively or on the computer? Do you need help in confronting your spouse/partners suspicious behavior? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to contact Dr. Mike and set up an appointment. Don’t allow an old love to destroy your relationship. If your marriage has been threatened by or has ended because of a social media affair and you need someone to talk to, or need help in overcoming the pain you’re going through, please call Dr. Mike at 303.880.9878. He can help you. He has helped several people through the process of a broken relationship caused by social media infidelity.

Dr. Michael Brooks is the founder of Applicable Counseling and life coaching Services. It is affordable, accessible, anonymous and available by appointment from the privacy of your home. To avoid travel time and the comfort of home, many clients prefer to meet with Dr. Mike over the phone or via Skype (if you want to Skype with Dr. Mike send him an email at mbrooks3353@gmail.com to set up an appointment). The convenience of this type of Counseling/Coaching is the most effective means of Life Coaching for those who live outside of Colorado. Give Dr. Mike a call! You’ll be glad you did!

If You’re Considering Divorce (1)

By Dr. Michael Brooks

I am amazed by the people wanting out of their marriages and the reasons why. I don’t question the intent of the person seeking a divorce as there are some good reasons to leave a marriage. But some of the reasons I hear seem to be knee jerk reactions out of anger or revenge. More often than not, once the person wanting the divorce cools off, cooler heads prevail. Then civil communication usually begins, and the couple tries to talk things over. That’s how it’s supposed to happen, so they say!

There are many reasons why people divorce, some good and some bad. The ones that are the most common and that I hear: are falling out of love, physical and emotional adultery, drugs, and alcohol, spousal abuse, and abandonment. Most people who deal with these reasons for divorcing have some idea somethings not right in their marriage and want to move on with their lives. There is the small percentage of folks caught off guard that are so trusting that their partner would never cheat on them, then they find out their spouse cheated and are devastated and crushed. The drinking and drugs usually have warning signs that most people can see. There is so much damage that happens in a marriage when alcoholism is involved. One person is trying to survive why the other lives in denial. It’s a tough situation to be in.

Before you consider getting a divorce, check out all your options. I suggest couples or individual marriage counseling to help you decide.

Divorce has stabilized the last ten years; there are many reasons for that. The availability of helpful resources from within the community, or churches. The economy is improving. This younger generation seems to communicate better with each other, and a host of other reasons.

I’ve spent years counseling couples and exposing the myths of divorce and how to overcome these myths with truth and facts. I have to be honest with my feelings. I have seen couples that didn’t have any reason for a divorce per say, but still went ahead and got divorced. It was hard for me to understand all the reasons these people divorce, but that’s their decision, not mine.

So here is the main reason for this article today on why people are considering divorce. In the many years that I have counseled and coached couples deciding if they wanted a divorce, here are few of the reasons for couples splitting up today.

• Emotional affairs: There is no physical intimacy in the beginning, but this can change over a period of time. The emotional affair usually starts through texting, phone contact or even Skype.
• Physical affairs: These usually happen when an individual is looking to have their needs met, physically, or emotionally. This starts out as friends and advances into something more. One or both of the people involved in a physical affair are both surprised by this.
• Alcohol and drug abuse: I have had some clients that had no clue that the person they married had any kind problems in this area. I have seen some individuals so traumatized by a spouse who lied about their drinking or drug habits.
• Physical abuse: Many divorces are a result of physical abuse. They are either hit, slapped, beaten, kicked, punched, pushed, shoved and fear for their lives. Both men and women can do this to their spouse. The damage this can cause the entire immediate family is heartbreaking.
• Emotional abuse: This is starting to become a bigger problem within marriages. The internet has advanced this problem by some of the music video’s showing mostly women being abused by men verbally. It’s a common sign that a marriage is headed for trouble once this begins.
• Lack of love, falling out of love, common interests, no passion, and unrealistic expectations. These are considered major distractions in marriage and are the most repairable yet can be annoying to the one who wants the marriage to work.

The issues that are affecting couples today can be several but integrated into one problem. For example, the emotional and physical affairs usually tend to be combined. I had one client several years ago ask his wife if she was having an emotional affair after he saw her texts on her phone, it escalated to “are you also having an intimate relationship as well.” It didn’t end well; the affair cost them their marriage.

Do you suspect that you’re falling out of love with your spouse? Do you feel like your relationship is drifting apart? Has the lack of love in your relationship caused your spouse/partner to cheat on you by using Facebook or Classmates.com? Have you seen the signs of them spending time texting excessively or on the computer? Do you need help in confronting your spouse/partners suspicious behavior? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to contact Dr. Mike and set up an appointment. Don’t allow an old love to destroy your relationship. If your marriage has been threatened by or has ended because of a social media affair and you need someone to talk to, or need help in overcoming the pain you’re going through, please call Dr. Mike at 303.880.9878. He can help you. He has helped several people through the process of a broken relationship caused by social media infidelity.

Dr. Michael Brooks is the founder of Applicable Counseling and life coaching Services. It is affordable, accessible, anonymous and available by appointment from the privacy of your home. To avoid travel time and the comfort of home, many clients prefer to meet with Dr. Mike over the phone or via Skype (if you want to Skype with Dr. Mike send him an email at mbrooks3353@gmail.com to set up an appointment). The convenience of this type of Counseling/Coaching is the most effective means of Life Coaching for those who live outside of Colorado. Give Dr. Mike a call! You’ll be glad you did!