Ep 38: How to Thrive as a Couple with Psychotherapist Allison

Walker and I had an amazing conversation with a relationship expert and registered Psychotherapist who specializes in keeping couples thriving throughout parenthood on the podcast today. Allison Villa teaches busy couples to live with intention and to use simple time-efficient strategies to connect with each other. She has a great deal of relationship information and advice to offer not just to listeners, but, as you will hear, to Walker and I as well.

In the discussion today, Allison identifies the prime importance of self-care, and explores the concepts of unlearning patterns, being cheerleaders in relationships, and implementing ‘daily love habits’. She also discusses the value of recognizing and vocalizing needs, the reality of ups and downs in relationships, introduces some of the programs which she has available to help couples keep their relationships ‘tuned up’, and reviews the role that self-change plays in them.

Allison goes into great detail about what she terms the ‘Relationship Seasons’, describes her family’s move to Mexico, offers strategies for families to employ during the current pandemic, and finishes by offering some general advice for couples. As you will hear, we identified with so many aspects of the information and suggestions which Allison shares today, and you will undoubtedly do the same.

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• Taking care of yourself as an individual first and modeling that for your child
• Unlearning your own patterns
• Being each other’s biggest cheerleaders in all aspects of life
• Building ‘daily love habits’ into your everyday life
• Recognizing a need, vocalizing it, and having it heard and acted upon
• Dealing with the ups and downs of relationships
• Allison’s Couple’s Tune-Up and Couple’s Sandbox programs, and her Self-Care Tool Kit
• The effect of the sense of self-change in parenthood on relationships
• The Relationship Seasons
• Allison’s move to Mexico and how it built their resiliency muscles
• Strategies for families in dealing the pandemic
• Advocating for yourself
• One thing for couples to start and stop

• Allison’s House and Hook website
• Couple’s Sandbox
• Couple’s Tune-Up Course
• Self-Care Tool Kit
• Allison’s Instagram