Couples that put sofas together, stay together, suggests psychologist Ramani Durvasula.
Braving the labyrinthian Ikea showroom can feel fun and exciting at first.
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Until you remember there are people literally everywhere and too many decisions to make. Then once you load your selections into the car and get home, you've got to actually, you know, figure out how to build the stuff.
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Licensed psychologist and couples therapist Ramani Durvasula of Santa Monica, California, says furniture building can be a great way of assessing her clients' communication skills. So she has them videotape themselves assembling furniture.
She doesn't force an Ikea trip on anyone. Rather, she asks them to let her know when they're in need of a new piece of furniture and then has them talk her through the assembly experience via text messages and subsequent therapy sessions.
"It's illuminating because I think, like so many things in life, we don’t realize how much those things show us about ourselves," Durvasula told BuzzFeed News.
It's a chance for couples to think critically about how they handle high-pressure situations. If they resort to insults and command each other while struggling with a pesky dresser, it's likely those same patterns of behavior show up in other areas of their relationship, she said.
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from BuzzFeed - Latest http://www.buzzfeed.com/juliekliegman/this-therapist-asks-couples-to-work-through-relationship-iss?utm_term=4ldqpia
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