January 2026
High-Conflict Co-Parenting: Nurturing Children When Parents Are at Odds
High-conflict co-parenting occurs when separated, divorced, or never married parents remain locked in ongoing disputes marked by hostility, mistrust, and poor communication. While conflict between adults is not uncommon after a relationship ends, high-conflict dynamics are different in both intensity and duration—and they can have serious emotional and psychological consequences for children caught in the middle. At its core, high-conflict co-parenting is usually less about the child’s needs and more about unresolved issues between parents. Communication may be frequent but unproductive, often revolving around blame, control, or past grievances. Simple decisions about school, schedules, or healthcare can escalate into major
November 2024
Therapists Need Therapy Too
By Adrienne Rains, LMFT-Associate Supervised by Dr. Mark White As therapists, we carry a lot of things with us in our hearts, minds, and souls. We need a place to get those things out. When in school or newly licensed we have a supervisor that allows us to express ourselves in a safe place. We are constantly talked to about self-care and what our plan is, but what happens when we are finished with school and supervision and on our own in private practice and our self-care falls by the wayside? This is when therapists need to turn to other
June 2023
Motherhood is hard
By Adrienne Rains LMFT - Associate (TX) and AMFT (NM) Supervised by Dr. Mark White I’m going to say what we are all thinking, motherhood is hard. You go into motherhood thinking about all of the sweet things that a baby will bring into your life. Like love, joy, cute outfits, setting up the nursery just so, etc. But once your little one is in your arms you learn about the sleepless nights, the crying, the spit up (or in some cases projectile vomit), the poop, being peed on, but mostly you learn that you as the mother can lose
March 2020
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 5
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover effective antidotes to prevent empowering the sexual temptation experience. God’s design is to empower a man’s experience of his wife, thereby disempowering the experience of sexual temptation. A husband needs to choose to rejoice in, be satisfied by, and be captivated by his wife, exclusively. Wives are designed to thrive in a context of knowing their husbands are making these choices. A fourth design parameter to consider comes from 1 Peter 3:7 where we find a verse stating
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 4
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover an effective antidote to the experience. The first design antidote is to choose to rejoice in your wife. The second design antidote is to choose to experience physical, sensual, and sexual satisfaction exclusively with your her. The third is to choose to be captivated in your wife. The scripture in Proverbs 5:19 states in most versions ‘may you be captivated by her love.’ Notice that the scripture does not include choosing to be captivated by physical characteristics. It
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 3
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover an effective antidote to the experience. The first design antidote is to choose to rejoice in your wife. The second design antidote is to choose to experience physical, sensual, and sexual satisfaction exclusively with her. The scripture in Proverbs 5:19 actually states in most versions ‘may her breasts satisfy you always.’ It seems clear that the verse is not about anatomy, but about the satisfying nature of bodily contact with a wife. Notice that the scripture does not
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 2
Previously, I presented Proverbs 5 as God’s design for husbands to make sense of sexual temptation in marriage, and to further discover an effective antidote to the experience. The first design antidote is to choose to rejoice in your wife. Proverbs 5: states ‘may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.’ Rejoicing is not a common term for most of us in today’s culture. What does this really mean in the Hebrew context in which it was written? We need to know the meaning in order to live out the design. Rejoice means to feel or to show great
Struggling with Sexual Temptation as a Married Man? Part 1
God’s word tells us to not covet our neighbor’s wife. But the world we live in presents sexual temptation every day. When the book of Hebrews says that Jesus himself was tempted in every way, but was without sin, does that mean that he experienced sexual temptation? If so, what’s the difference between coveting (sin) and the sexual temptation of Jesus? How can I make sense out of the commandment, my daily reality, and the temptation of Jesus himself? First, when scripture says that Jesus was tempted in every way, we must assume that his temptation included sexual temptation. Second,
