Couples Therapy Archives | Oceanside Malibu

What Is Emotional Abuse?

What is emotional abuse? Are you a victim of someone’s mind games? Nobody enjoys being played, but predators enjoy playing people. They enjoy the game of cat-and-mouse and seek pleasure from reeling in their next vulnerable victim. More often than not, people who are prone to being taken advantage of by potential abusers overlook their innocent facades. In fact, they often make excuses for them, even when they’re being poorly mistreated by toxic behavior. Why would this be? Those whom tend to emotionally abuse people aren’t always obvious. They may be male or female. They can disguise themselves by being charming but he minimization of your needs is paramount. more »

Masculine Vulnerability

There’s a lot of talk right now about Toxic Masculinity but did you know that there is a type of masculinity that not enough men are bringing to the table? It’s called Masculine Vulnerability and it’s a critical part of building rapport with others. As young boys, we’re often taught that we are only entitled to two types of feelings: happiness or anger. To express fear, or sadness or vulnerability of any kind is a form of weakness that we should feel ashamed of. We then grow up to become men who don’t allow ourselves to feel a large array of feelings. If we do actually have different feelings (which more »

Addressing Gender Issues in Treatment

Addressing Gender Issues in Treatment Over the last decade, the gender gap has been narrowing among young school students who use drugs. Women only represent a fifth of clients in specialized drug treatment, but their problems are often more complex than those for men: They tend to progress faster towards addiction; a phenomenon known as “telescoping”. They go through more severe withdrawal symptoms and report higher levels of depression and anxiety. Women often start using drugs through a drug-using male partner, and are more likely to share needles and other equipment with their partner. In general, women are likely to have fewer socio-economic resources – this is even more the more »

What Does Being ‘Codependent’ Actually Mean?

What Does Being ‘Codependent’ Actually Mean? So what does it really mean to be codependent? If you ask a dozen different therapists you’re liable to get a dozen different answers, which is why codependency is so difficult to understand. Codependents have been given a bad rap. They are often described as emotional manipulators and controlling, but the truth is codependents are some of the nicest people around. They care about others and strive to help whenever and wherever they can, the problem for codependents as you will see, is that they go overboard in their focus on caring for others. Codependents are usually good people but often stressed out by more »