In a recent Portland marriage counselor blog, I wrote about how relationship education can help all of your relationships, not just your romantic ones. Relationship problems most often come from unrealistic expectations and a lack of understanding or communication between two people, and relationship education teaches you how to recognize this in your relationships and [...]

As a Portland marriage counselor, I can tell you based on my experience that the first models we have for how relationships are supposed to work are our parents. If mom and dad have a loving, supportive relationship based on mutual trust, honest communication, and affection, we will have a healthier outlook on how a [...]

Portland Relationship Center is now a part of Facebook!  Keep an eye out for updates and articles from Norene and other Portland marriage counselors on our new Facebook page.  You can also now share any of our blog postings with your Facebook friends with a simple click of a button below the articles.
We will continue [...]

Science is proving what this Portland marriage counselor already knows, that marriage education makes marriages stronger. In an article in Science News, expectant parents who attended a brief relationship-strengthening class around the time their child was born “…showed lasting effects on each family member’s well being and on the family’s overall relationships, according to a [...]

Being a marriage counselor in Portland, Oregon, means that I talk to couples and individuals regularly about improving their sexual desire. Sex drive has many contributing factors. Web MD suggests that there are 12 major areas that are “Sex Drive Killers” for women and men:

Stress
Relationship Problems
Alcohol
Parenting (privacy problems)
Too little sleep
Medication
Body image
Obesity
Low testosterone
Depression
Menopause
Too little intimacy [...]

An experienced and qualified marriage counselor knows that most couples do not start marriage counseling until their marriage is in peril. Research shows that most couples should have started marriage counseling seven years earlier. There is a significant number of couples that enter therapy believing their marriage is “too far gone” to save and they [...]