Beyond Survival – Skills for Healing: Reframing Trauma

  Did you know 1/6 males will experience sexual victimization in their lifetime? Its a common assumption that sexual harm happens to males in addition to females and trans or non-binary individuals. Male survivors are often unseen and unheard. Because of toxic masculinity in our culture and many other cultures around the world, it can…

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SheKnows: Ethical Non-Monogamy

In August 2020, Respark’s founder and director Heather McPherson, LPC-S, LMFT-S, CST was mentioned in a She Knows article on ethical non-monogamy. This article describes that ethical non-monogamy is any consensual relationship that involves more than two people, whether that be inside or outside of the relationship. Ethical non-monogamy is seemingly growing to be a…

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5 Signs it’s Time to See a Respark Certified Sex Therapist

As Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, we learn in our training that it can take couples on average 7 years to get help. This is similar to how long it may take to start sex therapy, although sometimes it might take even longer! Don’t make the same mistake. Sure, it can be nerve racking to…

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TMI to Happy Endings

Our Respark Founder, Heather McPherson LPC-S, LMFT-S, CST was recently interviewed in Bravo. The article was centered on Denis Richards disclosing personal details from happy endings to penis size and cheating. Below are a few questions Heather was asked by Bravo. How can you have a sexy long distance relationship? If you are in a…

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More on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | The Gottman Institute 

We wrote a summary of the four horsemen to predict divorce and an earlier post. We’d like to keep expanding on this important topic of communication patterns in relationships. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are: Criticism: An example of a critical statement is, “You’re so selfish” Defensiveness: When you’re feeling defensive, you might say, “Its not my…

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Is monogamy really possible? Or is it just not natural?

On an episode of Dr. Phil in 2012, Dr. David Ley appeared to discuss sexual desire and monogamy. Dr. David Ley explained a huge component of attraction, facial symmetry. Women are more attracted to people with facial symmetry, as our brains analyze symmetry as having good DNA to reproduce with.  Dr. Phil asked David Ley,…

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How to Stop Blaming in your Relationship

Brene Brown begins her video by asking, “How many of you when something goes wrong, you want to know who’s fault it is?”  One day, Brene was in the kitchen and dropped a full cup of hot coffee on the tile floor. It splashed all over her white pants and went everywhere. The first thing that…

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