Browse published articles attributed to Tina Tessina, with full-archive search.
Writing has a powerful effect on our emotional state. The following exercise is designed to help you fully express feelings that may have lain dormant for a long time, or may be too intense and jumbled for your to process effectively. Youll find it helpful in expressing what you feel, especially if youre having difficulty letting go, forgiving, grieving for or being appropriately angry at someone.
Dear Dr. Romance:
There's a lot of misinformation about divorce, and Dr. Romance would like to clear up some of the confusion. Here are 11 things people will not tell you about divorce.
Click here for video Dear Dr. Romance: I saw your video "Don't Call Your Ex" Great video post, good advice.
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance, I love reading your articles here and on Divine Caroline, and I always look forward to the new ones. I have a long time online friend. We have been friends for about three-four years, and I even felt I was in love with him for a while - and told him so. He said he wasn't over his ex yet, so I dropped it.
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance A question for you: I have a female friend that I dated for 7 months - she dumped me - and is, I think, dating some other guy. The question is: I have tried to ask her for 5 or 6 different events - and have gotten turned down for each one - with some excuse - the excuse sounds good - but I think its just that an excuse. So, the other day I point blank asked her - do you want me to stop asking you out - and be honest" . Her reply was "NO".
A practical article connected into the broader SelfGrowth topic graph.
No one likes to be criticized, fairly or not. It's always difficult to deal with, and it can hurt. Because I'm a writer of books and columns, and because I've lectured, appeared on radio and TV, I am sometimes recognized in public. I'm glad I'm not more recognizable, for along with the lovely feedback, gratitude and complements I get from many people, others feel compelled to criticize, often in a mean way, and often without having even read whatever book or column they're criticizing.
Dear Dr. Romance: I was dating this guy for about 2 years. During the time that we were together we had some good times and bad. For one he was cheating on me with another girl then we got back together. During that time we worked hard to make the relationship work then I found out that he was sleeping with someone else. When I found this out, I finally left him alone.
Dear Dr. Romance: I wonder if you have an article that you've written that you can point me too on how to let go of a toxic relationship. I've been involved for 7 months with a man who is continually evasive, avoidant-attachment, manipulative and I need to figure out how to let this go. Dear Reader: Yes, I do. It's a problem many people, especially women, have.
When I was a girl, growing up in the small township of Rockland, New York, there was a tiny post office, which was a small room with a separate entry in the house next door. Rockland’s official postmistress was Clara Weiss, who seemed very elderly even when I was a very small child. She was what we used to call a “maiden lady” or spinster, who had dedicated her life to taking care of her mother, who was disabled, and also not quite balanced. Mrs. Weiss had one leg, and frequently escaped from the house and crawled around the yard, yelling strange things.
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance:
As a parade went by, one of the horses pulling a float entry left a memento in the middle of the road, right in front of where we were watching from the sidewalk. From that point on, every band or group that came marching down the road marched bravely on, right through the pile of horse manure.
Dear Dr. Romance: I am writing this letter to you because I really want to know what is the right love to last a lifetime? I am frustrated right now. How couples especially married, last love into lifetime? I am in love with someone, but I don't know if that person feels the same way too. But in some way or in somehow, I know she feels in a small amount of love for me. How to love right? God is loving right, must we follow that? Dear Reader:
If You're Fighting About Money, Read These Five Tips In our society, money represents power, success, and often even your value as a person. We say (misquoting the Bible,) “Money is the root of all evil," or “money is power;” or “he who has the gold, makes the rules.” We consider it spiritual to take a vow of poverty, and we prosecute and convict people who get greedy.
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance: I am a retired police officer who found his wife sneaking around with another man 3 years ago. We have 3 kids. I cook and clean and up all night doing laundry 3 to 4 nights a week. I work two jobs to support my kids and family. I love my wife and forgave her with what happened 3 years ago, but she never forgave me for tracking her down to that guys house that very dark day when she was supposed to be working.
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance I'm in my seventies, and he is 25 years younger.we met on a senior dating site almost two years ago, and have been living together for over a year. He and my daughter went to the same high school, and he says he was attracted to me then and always compared his other relationships to me.
Dear Dr. Romance: My best girlfriend ever and I dated for about eight months, then had a long distance relationship when she went back to her home country. She just broke up with me over email and she is dating someone from her home city for the last month. I thought we were very happy and serious and our best things were chemistry and compatibility!
There's a pervasive myth in our society that there is a right and a wrong way to love. However, there's not much clarity about what the right might be. We all have difficulty with relationships and difficulty with love. Therefore, we're liable to draw the uncomfortable conclusion: "Everyone knows how to love correctly except me."
Dear Dr. Romance:
Everyone wants the best relationship they can have. The markers of a happy relationship are: Cooperation/partnership, mutuality, laughter and affection. Whether you're in a relationship now or hoping to be, these keys will help you create a more loving and happier partnership. The Key to Handling Problems Before They Start: Be on the lookout for early warning signs that things are getting a little off track between you two:
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance: I need help! I am beyond confused. My husband is having an affair for more than six months with some woman who is 15 years younger than him. He lives with this women for all practical purposes and only comes home to sleep. He shows up at 11:00 p.m. at night and leaves by 7:30 A.M the next morning. We have been married for 19 years and we have 3 children.
Extreme makeovers are all the rage these days, with botox injection parties, and reality shows. Plastic surgery is on the rise. Many people are trying to match the extraordinary measures actors and actresses go through to look perfect on the screen. These are shortcuts taken to try to create happiness with a scalpel, a diet, or an implant, and they don't fulfill their promise. Beautiful people are not automatically happy people.
Dear Dr. Romance:
Click here for video Many men think it's exciting to be a "serial single guy" but at a certain point, life begins to feel empty. That means it's time to grow up emotionally, and consider making a commitment and building a life with more real satisfaction.
Dear Dr. Romance Your web-site impressed me and prompted this note, and I'd appreciate your thoughts. I am a reasonably well-educated individual which includes a couple of degrees in psychology and have been quite successful in my career. My wife who is also well-educated and our marriage has spanned three decades plus and we have not experienced serious problems in the past.
It’s not always easy to tell which strangers are dangerous, and which are not. Here are some guidelines for protecting yourself and telling the difference. 1. Don’t be alone with a new person too quickly, and don’t go to the other person’s home, or allow him or her in yours, especially if you have children. Get to know someone first away from your home. Rather, meet for coffee or lunch in a public place, or in a group.
It was one of those magical encounters with a personal truth—you know how it feels. I was fifteen, in ninth-grade English. The teacher, Mr. Rizzutto, read us a poem, and it had such a profound effect on me that even five decades later, I’m still using it as a guide. The poem, “Outwitted,” by Edwin Markham, is simple: He drew a circle that shut me out; Heretic; rebel; a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in.
Dear Dr. Romance My sister is 2 years younger and not long after my Dad died, I thought we should sit down and talk about things that needed to be done. She is the executor and took offense, accusing me of getting between her and Dad. Then, when my Mom got sick, she also got angry at everything I tried to do to help out.
Sooner or later all of us question the meaning of life. The sooner we get to it, the better chance we have of finding a satisfactory answer. As a therapist I watch many of my clients pass through stages of personal growth. Once they work through the issues that have held them back, they often begin to ask..."What now?"which prompts a desire to search for meaning.
Dear Dr. Romance: I am a bipolar woman with emotional problems. These problems seem to manifest most lately with my boyfriend whom I tend to blame for everything. I feel super insecure when we are out and he notices other women. He taught me a lot about sexuality and commented constantly about other females and tried to entice me into threesomes, or at least get me interested in having one.
Seniors today are still of a generation that doesn't want to seem to plan for sex. And there's no need for birth control, so that motivation for condom use doesn't exist. Also, senior men may not have as inevitable erections as they did when younge, so that may make them reluctant to use condoms. However, female condoms are available, and unless you and your partner are both tested, don't assume you're safe.
Q: My spouse and I often have arguments over the small stuff. How do we get past this so that we are not constantly bickering?
Dear Dr. Romance:
Dear Dr. Romance: I am considering being a licensed psychotherapist. What was your education track if I may ask? Dear Reader:
The most valuable thing in a long-term stable relationship is having a partnership, and most new couples don't realize that money is a major factor in marital happiness. Money is one of the biggest generators of problems, arguments, and resentment in long-term relationships. Couples argue about spending, saving budgeting, and disparity in earnings. When couples have difficulty with money, it can lead to financial infidelity: out-of-control spending, lying and hiding finances; which can destroy the relationship.
Dear Dr. Romance: