It our final episode of season five, and the question we’re answering today is “Wouldn’t it just be easier if we were all the same?” Okay, that’s not exactly true, but we are talking about navigating differences within your partnership, especially when kids are part of the picture. The question starts off with a disagreement about how to mark holidays and important life events, which gets us wondering about the role of ritual and tradition in each of these partner's lives growing up, and the meaning they’ve taken from that into their lives together. What are the needs each of them is expressing inside of the strategies they are disagreeing about? If we explore those needs, we can start to get at all the implicit learnings that are coming in with them, transforming the argument into a creative collaboration.

What if a relationship ending didn’t mean it was a failure? It’s our second-to-last episode of season 5. We’re answering a question that takes us inside some complicated relationship dynamics, from open relationships and polyamory to long distance and relationships with a time limit. We offer a big YOU-turn for you when you’re wondering what your partner is thinking or feeling about an issue and offer some compassion for your protective parts that want to “get you out of hard.” Finally, listen until the end to hear what each of us really thinks about open relationships. Spoiler: it’s three different things!

It’s another two-fer episode today, with a pair of questions that have to do with partners interrupting or getting annoyed when the other partner wants to talk about feelings. Plus, we’ve got WDMP producer/music therapist Al Hoberman back on as a special guest!

When is it a good time to bring up 'feelings talk' in your house? During dinner? Before bed? While watching TV? A big part of having these kinds of conversations is knowing when your partner has the capacity to be there with you. And for the listener, it’s so much easier to have capacity when you know how the speaker wants you to be there for them. That’s why we’re spending so much time in this episode on having meta conversations about how and when you and your partner can show up for each other. That means learning to balance short term tension with long term pain, separating vulnerability from shame, and learning how to be with someone’s process.

Today we have an extra special episode of Why Does My Partner, as we welcome our special guest, Al Hoberman! Besides being the sound editor and producer of WDMP, Al is a music psychotherapist in private practice. He’s joining us for this listener question, which takes us down the rabbit hole of asking “Just what is a feeling anyway? How do you know when you’re having one, and what counts as ‘talking about them?’” We get into socialized gender roles, communicating without words, learning to tolerate disagreement, and creating a pausing practice to up your self-compassion.

Plus, finally we get to talk about Jules’ new book, Setting Boundaries That Stick: How Neurobiology Can Help You Rewire Your Brain to Feel Safe, Connected and Empowered. Available December 1st at a book seller near you!

What happens inside of your relationship when things in other parts of your life start to get stressful? Maybe it feels like you have less time to dedicate to your partner, or that your energy is just completely spent after a long day, and you just don’t have it in you to be present and relational. That’s the topic of today’s question, and it takes us into a conversation all about integrated vs. unintegrated brain states, windows of tolerance, and why scheduling your spontaneity is such an important part of cherishing your relationship.

Congratulations! You’ve been working hard on this relationship, and it really feels like you’re getting to the next level. So why is it that everything your partner does is so darn annoying? If that’s happening for you, you’re not alone. In today’s episode, we’re discussing why we always seem to pick a partner who knows exactly how to push our buttons, and what that can tell us about our own psychological floor. Keep listening to learn about inner fix-it protectors, why we don’t believe in finding “the right one,” and how if everything your partner does annoys you, that could actually be a good sign.

We talk about hurt a lot on this podcast, so much so that we released a whole mini-series called “Discord Builds Trust...No Really!” (Check it out if you haven't already!) So when this question came along, we had a lot of angles to cover. We discuss making YOU-turns on the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, and when lashing out is really about a deep desire to connect. We also talk healthy distance, and how sometimes compassion means taking care of yourself, not sticking around for the hope of relational safety.

The resource mentioned in this episode is the book Archaeology of the Mind by Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven.

What do apes, grapes, and celery have to do with each other? They’re all on today’s episode of the WDMP podcast! Our listener question brings us to exploring what lies beneath the desire for fairness, and what’s really being communicated when one partner is feeling resentful or underserved. Topics include what it means to attack from the victim position, inherited expectations, and flinging poo. No, really!

We’re not going to lie, today’s question hit home for a lot of us here at Why Does My Partner HQ. We’re sharing our stories of relationships where it was hard to let go as we respond to this listener, whose partner keeps breaking up with her and getting back together...now more than seven times.

There’s some big YOU-turns to be made in this story, and at the center of it all is the question, “What would happen if you said: ‘No, I don’t want this?‘” Would there be grief that you’ve been avoiding? Fear of being alone? These answers could be "yes" for either person in this story. And it could also be that there’s a process going on here, and in that back and forth, there’s some kind of learning or repair going on. So, the YOU-Turn is also about realizing that if that’s what’s happening, and it doesn’t feel okay for you, what’s the cost of letting it continue?

Here we are with Season 5 of the Why Doesn’t My Partner podcast! This episode is about mismatch, but don’t let the title fool you - it’s not just about sex. It’s about the discomfort of experiencing mismatch in your partnership, and the shame of wanting something that maybe somewhere in your life, you’ve learned is not okay. Starting with this You-turn, we cover topics like discovering your psychological floor, and how to notice the subtle cues that tell you you’re nearing it. How do we open up about our ingrained beliefs around what’s okay when it comes to sex? What does it mean to move from a culture of shame to a culture of pleasure?

Today’s invitation is to start building a map of your relationship to sex, sexuality, and pleasure. What are all the things you’ve learned from your family, culture, society, and your past? Next, what do you know about your own desire? About what does or doesn’t feel good to you? And how has that changed over time? Because it probably has! Once you’ve done that, take a listen to the episode for an exercise you can do with your partner to get the conversation started.

Resources mentioned today are Sex When You Don't Feel Like It by Cyndi Darnell, Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski, and Magnificent Sex by Peggy J. Kleinplatz and A. Dana Ménard.