The Gottman Institute answers the questions you have about sex, lovemaking, and communication with this installment of AskGottman.
After answering the questions you have about money, we currently turn our focus on sex.
Understand that the answers listed here are intended to be psycho-educational. We encourage you to consult the Gottman Referral Network if you would like to speak with a professional trained in the Gottman Method.
My gf is 48 and I’m 43, and we’re in an exceedingly loving relationship that is same-sex. She has very little sexual interest, and although we now have healthy communication about this, I’m struggling to manage the hurt, frustration, and loss all over topic. How do I learn to better deal with her absence of desire?
The fact that you have got healthy interaction about intercourse is a positive indicator associated with strength of one’s relationship. It’s understandable to be harmed once you try not to feel sexually desired by your partner. But, decide to try very hard to not ever notice it being an implied criticism of the attractiveness, intimate virility, lovemaking ability, or innermost being. Within the Seven Principles to make Marriage Perform, Dr. Gottman advises obtaining the attitude of a professional chef. “A chef is not insulted if a person isn’t within the m d for polenta today or comes with an aversion to squid,” he explains. “Instead she or he makes accommodations that may fulfill the customer’s palate.”
We advice shifting the main focus from intercourse to sensuality. Many couples are surprised to discover that touching, holding, kissing, and massaging rather than making love actually leads to a greater sexual interest over time. As Zach Brittle describes in S is actually for Sex, “Hugging, keeping hands, snuggling, kissing all intimacy that is foster. A consignment to closeness can yield more regular and more sex that is satisfying but even though it does not, closeness stays and finally trumps intercourse.”