In the Recovering Intimacy in Your Relationship course, Melissa Orlov will introduce you to the key elements of partnership intimacy, and help you develop the relationship skills to feel - and express - more affection and love.
Session 1 – Understanding Intimacy and Self Intimacy
- What is intimacy?
- An intimacy model that works
- The four stages of most relationships
- How intimacy is impacted by the everyday context of your relationship
- How ADHD adds complexity to sustaining intimacy
- Developing emotional self-awareness (self-intimacy, or SI)
- The importance of accepting your own feelings, and how to do so
- Examples of 'typical' interactions - anger, 'not good enough for you' and how SI helps stop them
- Exercises for building SI skills
Session 2 – Preparing for Successful Conflict Intimacy
- The 4 most common conflict styles
- Identifying your own conflict style
- Conflict style habits that are probably getting you in trouble
- Validation is a tool that help you be more conversationally intimate and trustworthy
- More tools - two types of structured conversations to get you started
- Non-verbal communication
- Seeking the positives in your partner and your life
- Exercises for understanding your conflict style in more depth
Session 3 – Conflict Intimacy In-Depth
- What is conflict intimacy? (CI)
- Approaching difficult topics with CI
- Power and control dynamics - how they interfere, and what to do about it
- The 'AAA-rated relationship'
- Five steps to identifying a mutually respectful CI process
- Exercises - starting to develop your conflict intimacy skills
Session 4 - Improving Your Conversations - Right Now
- The qualities of good conversations
- Relationship scripts and emotional filters and how they can get in your way
- Exploring whether a 'relationship reset' is right for you
- Exercises to help you explore your own relationship scripts
- Questions designed to introduce intimacy in your relationship
Session 5 – Affection Intimacy - Getting Going
- Affection intimacy - getting started
- How to use forgiveness to your advantage
- Seeking the positive
- Creating joy in your relationship
- How CI promotes renewed love
- How to make romance feel 'natural' again
- One more physiological tool - mirror neurons
- Exercises to explore affection intimacy and become friends again
Session 6 - Sex and Desire
- Affection intimacy in the sexual realm
- Sexual response, and arousal - a way to approach desire that really works
- The importance of attachment styles - and exploring your own
- Upping the desire quotient in your sex life
- Sex positive contexts in ADHD-impacted relationships
- Thinking about how you think about sex (i.e. meta-emotions) and why this matters
- Some basic tactics for having more fun with sex
Session 7 - Review
- Session 7 reviews all of the material and pulls it together
Return to Recovering Intimacy overview page for more information
This syllabus last updated on 3/20/16.
