S5E35: EP 35: Your Partner is Your Greatest Teacher – Even When You Want to Run Away in a Minivan!

What happens when the person you love most is also the person who can trigger your deepest wounds? In this episode of Sex and the Psyche, Dr. Jenni Skyler and Daniel Lebowitz sit down with relationship coaches and married couple Tarah and EJ Kerwin for a refreshingly honest conversation about love, marriage, parenting, sex, and what it really takes to stay connected when life gets hard. Tarah and EJ are therapists and relationship coaches who have built their careers helping couples reconnect, but their own marriage was tested in ways they never expected and found themselves overwhelmed by exhaustion, parenting, resentment, and a level of stress that challenged everything they thought they knew about relationships. Their experience eventually led them to develop a deeper understanding of intimacy and the realization that sexual disconnection is often about much more than sex. They talk about emotional safety, mismatched desire, the impact of parenthood on sexuality, and why couples need to be able to talk about intimacy without turning sex into a weapon, obligation, or measure of love. The conversation also explores one of the most powerful ideas in their work: our partners can become mirrors for the parts of ourselves we don't always want to see. Instead of asking, “Why is my partner doing this to me?” Tarah and EJ learned to ask, “What is this relationship bringing up in me?” From attachment wounds and childhood experiences to anger, defensiveness, abandonment, and the need to feel safe, this episode gets real about the personal work that can transform a relationship. It's a conversation about what happens when we stop trying to fix our partner and start becoming curious about ourselves, and how taking responsibility for our own patterns can actually create more freedom, intimacy, and choice within a relationship. If you've ever wondered where the connection went, struggled with mismatched sexual desire, felt like parenting changed your marriage, or found yourself repeatedly triggered by the person you love most, this episode offers plenty to think about- and plenty of reasons to keep doing the work. Because sometimes, the person who knows how to push your buttons is also the person who can help you discover what those buttons are connected to. Tarah and EJ Links:  Website: https://relationshiprenovation.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/relationshiprenovationcounseling Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/relationship_renovation/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfb8I3evBi7aZcVnmvN_yPw Learn more about Sex and the Psyche Watch this episode on YouTube Follow on Instagram and Facebook See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.