The Joy of Intimacy


Book Description

We all crave intimacy. It's essential to our emotional and spiritual health, and without it we don't feel whole. Yet today our culture faces an intimacy crisis. Many of us, even when we're in a committed relationship, still feel painfully alone.For more than four decades, world-renowned author, counselor, and teacher Manis Friedman has empowered couples to successfully navigate their own intimacy issues and replace loneliness and unfulfilled expectations with a deeply soulful and satisfying relationship. In this refreshingly frank, sensible, and at times humorous guide, Rabbi Friedman and Ricardo Adler share the deeper truths at the heart of our longing for intimacy along with practical wisdom from Jewish tradition-insights anyone can use to recapture passion, save their relationship, and tap into the essence of the true intimate experience.One by one, The Joy of Intimacy exposes the myths about love, sex, and intimacy that separate rather than bring us together and shows how to overcome the greatest obstacles to a healthy intimate relationship. You'll explore secrets to preserving your natural spontaneity, setting the mood for intimacy, and making your bedroom a sacred space. You'll also learn how to increase your sensitivity to the sacred experience of oneness that has the power to transform every aspect of your marriage and nourish all those around you.Whether you are married or single, in a relationship or seeking to create one that is both meaningful and lasting, The Joy of Intimacy will give you the skills and confidence you need to keep your relationship alive, fresh, and fulfilling.




The Seven Levels of Intimacy


Book Description

We All Crave An Authentic Experience Of Intimacy. Though our hearts crave intimacy, though our minds understand our deep need for it, the self-revelation it requires is often too daunting a task. Complete and unrestrained sharing of self exposes the deepest human fear of being rejected for being ourselves. InThe Seven Levels of Intimacy,Matthew Kelly both acknowledges and calms our fears, while teaching us how to move beyond them to experience the power of true intimacy.Matthew reveals that each relationship is built upon a pattern of interaction. In the beginning stages, we rely on casual interactions, gaining familiarity by focusing on superficialities and facts. We grow closer and begin to share our opinions, learning to accept each other and embrace the growing relationship despite the difference in our experiences and viewpoints. Once our differences and opinions are shared and accepted, we feel safe enough to reveal our hopes, dreams, and feelings, developing trust. With this trust, we open ourselves and are able to share our legitimate needs, becoming liberated from carrying the burden of our real needs alone. At last, we are deeply intimate and both willing and able to reveal our deepest fears. We are beyond judgment and feel trust and acceptance. By moving through and building upon each level of intimacy, we find comfort and gain trust in our partners and ourselves until, by developing and deepening our intimacy within each level, we are able to fully open ourselves, finally opening to the possibility of truly being loved. It is through mastering the seven levels of intimacy that we will break through to fully experiencing love, commitment, trust, and happiness.The Seven Levels of Intimacyis a brilliant and practical guide to creating and sustaining intimacy, whether you are looking for a deeper sense of connection with your spouse, looking for more fulfillment in your relationship with your boyfriend or girlfriend, trying to improve your relationships with your children, or simply wondering what you should be looking for in a partner.With profound insight and the use of powerful, everyday examples, Matthew Kelly explains how we can nurture the intimacy in our relationships.The Seven Levels of Intimacyredefines how we view our interactions with others. This new understanding leads us to successfully create the strong connections, deep joy, and lasting bonds that we all long for.




Supernatural Marriage


Book Description




Radical Intimacy


Book Description

A narrative guide and practical methodology for nurturing and sustaining our relationships with ourselves, others, and the world. “With intimacy as the foundational principle of our existence, we can build a life based on what we truly need, not what we think we need or have been told we need. By embracing the practice of radical intimacy, I can confidently promise my readers a personal revolution of self-acceptance, appreciation, vitality, and confidence. And without fail, mind-blowing, soul-stirring, earth-shattering sex follows.”—Zoë Kors Part practical guide, part client stories, part personal narrative, Zoë Kors draws on her experience as a sex and intimacy coach, thought leader, and relationship writer in sharing her powerful and practical methodology for nurturing and sustaining our intimate relationships over time. She addresses the essential truth that is almost universally missed in discussions of sex and intimacy: We can meet each other only to the extent that we can meet ourselves. Kors guides the reader on a five‑part journey through nine areas of opportunity for deepening intimacy with themselves, their partner, and their world, inviting them to embrace emotional, physical, and energetic self‑mastery, which is required to skillfully relate with others. At the conclusion of each part, there are a collection of experiential exercises which support the reader in embodying the concepts they’ve just read. Voice-driven, accessible, and with the right amount of tough love, Radical Intimacy takes the mystery out of human connection. From academia and science to mysticism and self-development, Kors delivers a rich and varied understanding of human sexuality and intimacy through the lens of the body, brain, heart, spirit, and culture.




Intimacy


Book Description

The hope for intimacy lies deep within us all. That moment of feeling uniquely understood, the antidote to isolation, is what gives us value, validation and self-belief. But as Ziyad Marar shows in this fascinating and engaging study, intimacy is a tricky business. The prevalence of social media, for example, is a sign of our desire for human connection, yet is a symptom of how little we truly achieve it. Often confused with love, intimacy is in many ways more important. Marar's investigation and celebration of this elusive but profound human experience shows how intimacy is central to a life well lived. But how do we spot the real thing? Marar helpfully identifies a key set of ingredients - reciprocity, conspiracy, heightened emotion, kindness - that when brought together enable the strongest experiences of intimacy. Without these four characteristics in the mix we are experiencing something less, or something else. Drawing on a wide range of sources - from key thinkers, as well as telling examples from familiar films and novels - Marar illustrates the subtlety and intricacies of intimacy and shows how closely it is bound up with notions of trust, control, risk and our own insecurities. Intimacy, argues Marar, is a necessary component of a fulfilled life. Yet we should not take for granted that we know what it is and how to get it. A better understanding of this powerful experience and the many barriers to achieving it may just help us to brave the search for it. For anyone bold enough to do so, which should be all of us, Intimacy is required reading.




The Art of Intimate Marriage


Book Description

From a two-time nationally award winning sexuality researcher - The Art of Intimate Marriage. God's plan for sexual intimacy in marriage is the work of a Master artist and genuine intimacy is like a beautiful masterpiece. Your marriage is going well but you want to make your sex life better and you’re looking for help on how to do that. You want to know what God has to say about how to build a fulfilling sexual intimacy in your marriage. Your sexual relationship has been full of pain, discouragement, and frustration and you need some answers. You have some medical issues that are making sex difficult and you would like to rekindle experiencing mutually pleasurable sex. For these issues and more, The Art of Intimate Marriage provides direction and guidance on how to get there. Creating that masterpiece may mean learning God’s view of sex, gaining life-giving intimacy skills, and figuring out how to work through conflict in a way that creates deeper connection. It may also mean overcoming things in your background, healing things in your marriage, or dealing with those medical challenges. We have the opportunity to have a deeper understanding of God’s loving heart through being deeply known and erotically bonded with our spouse. The Art of Intimate Marriage gives us a road map to experience growth toward a more rewarding, spiritual sexual relationship.




Loving with Passion


Book Description

This frank, straightforward guide treats lovemaking as a joy to be experienced and shared, going beyond the usual sex manual to consider sexuality and sensuality in all their many dimensions. Dr. Etkes helps couples to communicate, gain understanding, and break down the barriers that limit sensual love.




Intimate Friendship with God


Book Description

With personal examples and biblical truths, Dawson invites readers on a fascinating adventure into a place of intimate friendship with almighty God. This edition includes fresh illustrations and a foreword from Jack Hayford.




Fear Of Intimacy


Book Description

Gregory Allen Young, ordered by the court to attend Family Counseling before his fourth divorce is granted. Doing so Gregory realizes being raised in church and not applying the Word in his everyday affairs has made a shambles of his life. Discover along with Gregory what other information is revealed in counseling and what he accomplishes with that information.




The Dilemmas of Intimacy


Book Description

Grounded in the cognitive-behavioral approach, The Dilemmas of Intimacy focuses exclusively on understanding, assessing, and treating common problems with intimacy. Intimacy offers both risks and rewards, which create three dilemmas that every couple must negotiate: joy vs. protection from hurt, I vs. we, and past vs. present. These dilemmas offer readers a window into the treatment of intimacy problems, and help them to structure formulations, treatment goals, and therapeutic strategies. Unique to this book is the author’s “Intimacy Signature,” which is a comprehensive system for assessing couples’ intimacy issues, and offers a four-step formula for translating assessment data into therapeutic strategies. Along with the book, readers will have access to a web resource page that includes the Intimacy Signature assessment: therapist worksheets (that help match presenting problems to probable intimacy dilemmas), checklists of strengths and areas of vulnerability to assist the clinician in making a prognosis, a client take-home packet, and therapist tools for intervention (including therapist-client dialogues).