By Humanintimacy
5
88 ratings
The podcast currently has 35 episodes available.
Breaking Through Barriers:
How to Create Lasting Change in Life and
In this solo episode of The Human Intimacy Podcast, Dr. Kevin Skinner shares insights into the change process, drawn from his experiences as a therapist. He addresses common questions such as, "Why can't I change?" and "Why is this so hard?" and explores why we often feel stuck in life and relationships. Dr. Skinner outlines the four core elements we can change—thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and beliefs—offering practical strategies for creating lasting change. He shares a personal story about overcoming health challenges, emphasizing the importance of preparation, unlearning negative patterns, and adopting new habits. Through concepts like habit stacking and accountability, he provides actionable steps for listeners to create breakthroughs in their personal and relational lives. Dr. Skinner also introduces his Change 2.0 course, encouraging listeners to join him in a transformative journey to start the new year with purpose and clear goals.
Resources Discussed in This Episode:
1. Change 2.0 Course: Dr. Skinner’s online course designed for individuals, couples, and families looking to create sustainable, positive changes in their lives. The course includes goal setting, habit formation, and accountability to foster lasting growth.
2. Habit Stacking: A strategy where you build new habits by attaching them to existing positive habits. For example, listening to audiobooks while walking, or flossing right after brushing your teeth.
3. Accountability: Emphasizing the importance of sharing your goals with others—such as family members or in group settings like 12-step programs—to increase your likelihood of success.
4. Journaling and SMART Goals: Tools to increase awareness of your progress and create clear, actionable plans. SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) help you stay focused and on track.
5. Recommended Green Smoothie Recipe:
6. Wendy's Apple Pecan Salad: One of Dr. Skinner’s go-to meals for maintaining a healthy diet while creating change in his life.
Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their own change journey, considering what they need to unlearn, how to implement new behaviors, and the importance of changing core beliefs to sustain long-term progress.
Navigating the Early Stages of Sexual Betrayal Trauma: Understanding, Healing, and Support
Dr. Skinner and MaryAnn emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing betrayal trauma, providing validation for those suffering from overwhelming emotions such as confusion, anxiety, and shame. They share insights from personal experiences, research, and clinical practices, highlighting the significance of qualified therapeutic support and proper disclosure processes.
Key strategies for coping include gathering information, orienting oneself to the new reality, setting boundaries, and seeking trauma-informed therapy and support groups. Dr. Skinner also introduces the 100 Days to Healing course, designed to provide education, validation, and practical steps toward recovery from betrayal trauma.
Resources Mentioned:
2. Therapeutic Tools:
3. Courses and Support:
4. Podcast Contact:
In this episode of The Human Intimacy Podcast, Dr. Kevin Skinner and his colleague MaryAnn Michaelis explore the concept of confession as a means of healing relationships and releasing personal burdens. They discuss how fear, shame, and secrecy can create emotional and physiological stress, often leading to isolation. By sharing deeply held secrets and engaging in radical honesty, individuals can experience relief, connection, and personal growth.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of being vulnerable and honest in relationships while acknowledging the complexities and need for thoughtful preparation, particularly in situations of betrayal. They highlight the benefits of confession for emotional healing, how it can improve physiological well-being, and its potential to strengthen relationships. Both hosts stress the importance of creating a safe, empathetic space for such disclosures, cautioning against impulsive revelations that could cause further harm.
The episode concludes with practical advice for listeners on how to approach confession, emphasizing that true healing comes when individuals are willing to be fully seen and supported.
Resources Discussed
Here is a list of resources discussed in the podcast:
1. Dr. James Pennebaker's Book – Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions
2. Brené Brown’s Work on Shame and Vulnerability
3. Anna Lembke’s Book – Dopamine Nation
4. Gavin de Becker’s Book – The Gift of Fear
5. HumanIntimacy.com
These resources offer further reading on vulnerability, shame, honesty, and their impact on healing and relationships.
The Power of Being Seen:
Cultivating Connection and Attunement in Relationships
In this episode, Dr. Kevin Skinner and MaryAnn Michaelis explore the importance of being "seen" and "felt" in relationships. They discuss how modern life often hinders deep connection and emphasize the need for self-awareness and attunement to others' emotions. Using stories and insights from experts like Dan Siegel, they highlight how to genuinely connect through eye contact, active listening, and emotional presence. The episode concludes with an assignment for listeners to practice tuning into others, fostering deeper relationships in the process.
Key Concepts Discussed:
- Discusses the impact of modern technology on human connection and the desire to be "seen."
-
The Secrets of Successful Couples: Bid Attempts, Communication, and Emotional Connection
In this episode of the “Human Intimacy Podcast”, Dr. Kevin Skinner explores the secrets of successful couples, sharing key insights from relationship researchers like Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Sue Johnson. Dr. Skinner delves into the importance of recognizing and responding to "bid attempts"—those small gestures couples make to seek connection—and highlights how couples can either turn toward, away from, or against their partner's bids, affecting the relationship's overall health.
He continues by explaining that successful couples practice effective communication, managing conflict respectfully, offering emotional support, and incorporating healthy physical touch. These couples are also emotionally attuned to each other’s needs, express appreciation and gratitude, and prioritize connection through small, everyday actions.
Dr. Skinner encourages listeners to reflect on their own relationships, scoring themselves on their ability to turn toward bid attempts, communicate effectively, offer emotional support, and express gratitude. The episode emphasizes that these core principles, when practiced consistently, can significantly improve relationship satisfaction and help couples overcome challenges together.
Resources Mentioned:
https://www.humanintimacy.com/course/test-your-relationship-extra
A special thanks to McKay Hatch for allowing us to share his musical talent.
Facing the Fear of Intimacy:
Understanding and Overcoming the Barriers to Connection
In this heartfelt episode of The Human Intimacy Podcast, Dr. Kevin Skinner and co-host Amy Andrus dive into the common emotions surrounding the fear of intimacy. They explore how past experiences, childhood memories, and critical self-talk can create blind spots that hinder our ability to connect deeply with others.
Throughout the discussion, they provide insights into identifying and addressing these fears, emphasizing the importance of self-compassion and vulnerability. Whether you're navigating trust issues in a current relationship or seeking to understand your own reluctance to connect, this episode offers practical advice and emotional support to help you take the first steps toward meaningful human intimacy.
Assignment: After listening to this episode, take some time to reflect on your own experiences with fear of intimacy. Grab a piece of paper and write down the earliest memories you have related to feeling disconnected or fearful in relationships. What thoughts or emotions come up for you when you think about these moments? Consider when you first started feeling this way and how these fears may be impacting your current relationships. This self-reflection exercise can be a powerful first step toward understanding and overcoming the barriers to deeper connections in your life.
The Power of Social Connection: Healing and Thriving Through Support
In this episode of the Human Intimacy Podcast, Dr. Kevin Skinner and MaryAnn Michaelis discuss the vital importance of social connections for our physical and mental well-being. They explore the transformative impact of community, support groups, and trusted relationships, emphasizing that humans are inherently wired for connection. Through research and personal stories, they highlight how social support can help individuals recover from trauma, betrayal, and isolation. The hosts encourage listeners to seek out meaningful connections, whether through groups, past relationships, or safe individuals, as a critical step toward healing and thriving.
Breaking the Cycle:
How to Resolve Relationship Problems and Build Connection
In this episode of the Human Intimacy Podcast, Dr. Kevin Skinner and Amy Andrus explore how couples can break free from destructive relationship patterns that keep them stuck. They introduce the concept of the Zeigarnik effect—the tendency of the mind to cling to unresolved issues—and how it often plays out in relationships, causing repeated conflicts.
The hosts discuss practical strategies for identifying and disrupting these negative cycles, such as deep listening, self-reflection, and small, consistent changes in behavior. They emphasize the importance of gaining insight into one's own emotions and those of one's partner to foster understanding and compassion. Whether you're feeling hopeless or simply want to improve your relationship, this episode offers valuable tools and perspectives to help you create a healthier, more connected partnership.
The podcast emphasizes that successful relationships require effort, introspection, and a willingness to break old habits and create new, healthier ones.
Empathy in Action: A Path to Deeper Relationship Bonds
with Dr. Kevin Skinner and MaryAnn Michaelis
In this podcast episode, Dr. Kevin Skinner and MaryAnn Michaelis explore the concept of empathy, defining it as the ability to connect with others' emotions and hold space for their experiences. They discuss the challenges of practicing empathy in relationships, particularly during conflicts when emotions run high.
The episode introduces Carol Juergens Sheets’ AVR model—acknowledge, validate, reassure—as a tool to enhance empathy in relationships. The conversation emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, the difficulty of validating others' feelings when emotions are intense, and the need for effective communication during conflicts.
Resources:
https://www.humanintimacy.com/learnmore
What Happened to Us? Unpacking Relationship Challenges and Finding Solutions
1. Introduction and Purpose: The podcast, hosted by Kevin Skinner, focuses on individuals struggling in their relationships, exploring why relationships fail and what can be done to prevent this.
2. Dr. Skinner shares a personal story about his niece's beautiful wedding, contrasting the joy and connection of a new relationship with the fear and challenges many face in relationships today.
3. Statistics on Marriage and Divorce: In 2022, over 2 million couples married, while approximately 750,000 to 800,000 couples divorced in the United States, highlighting a significant societal issue.
4. Common Reasons for Divorce:
5. Dr. Skinner Emphasizes the Importance of Developing Our Relationship Skills: Emphasizes the importance of learning relationship skills, such as communication and problem-solving, to maintain strong relationships.
6. Impact of Stories: Discusses how unresolved issues lead to negative narratives that damage relationships, such as feeling unloved or unsupported by a partner.
7. Infidelity and Turning Outward: Explores how unresolved conflicts can lead to infidelity and turning to external sources for emotional needs.
8. Repairing Relationships: Highlights the importance of addressing core issues and repairing the relationship through effective communication and understanding.
9. Creating Love: Love is described as a renewable, actionable choice rather than a fleeting emotion. Actions, such as being vulnerable and acknowledging mistakes, can foster love.
10. Barbara Fredrickson's Insights: Love is essential for well-being, akin to oxygen and food, influencing our biochemistry and DNA expression.
11. Assignment: Listeners are invited to create a relationship history timeline to identify key events and unresolved issues in their relationships.
12. Commitment and Vulnerability: Emphasizes the importance of showing commitment and being vulnerable to repair and strengthen relationships.
13. Final Thoughts and Resource: Skinner encourages listeners to seek help and use available resources, such as the "Human Intimacy" webinar series and the "Relationship Dilemma" course, to improve their relationship skills.
14. **Quote by Barbara Fredrickson**: "Love is the essential nutrient that your cells crave," emphasizing the fundamental importance of love in our lives.
15. Conclusion: Encourages listeners to actively create and nurture love in their relationships, improving personal and societal well-being.
Resources Discussed:
Barbara Fredrickson’s book: Love 2.0 (Currently Free on Amazon)
The Relationship Dilemma
https://www.humanintimacy.com/course/the-relationship-dilemma-stay-or-leave
The Human Intimacy Webinar Series
https://www.humanintimacy.com/course/human-intimacy-free-webinar-series
The podcast currently has 35 episodes available.
5,685 Listeners
1,327 Listeners
679 Listeners
634 Listeners
185 Listeners
404 Listeners
402 Listeners
997 Listeners
161 Listeners
308 Listeners
320 Listeners
9,868 Listeners
635 Listeners
620 Listeners