Category Archives: Skills

Handouts for My Basic Classes

Al Turtle's Relationship Wisdom Posted on by

These are the Graphics  for my classes in Anacortes, WA.  I don’t know if we will use them, but I think it’s nice to have them available to refer to.

  1. Map of Relationships 
  2. Safety / Lizard
  3. Reliable Membership
  4. PreValidation, Validation – Icebergs
  5. Master Slave (simple); Master Slave (focused); Valley of the Masters
  6. Communication
  7. Boundaries for Individuals; Boundaries for Couples
  8. Frustration and Conflict
  9. Peace Building
  10. Survival: Notes for Clingers
  11. Full Relationship 

Meeting on Bridge, Glacier Park, Montana - 2012

Here are a few more that we may use:

Map of Relationships (B&W)
ValleyofMasters
DefendingDemocracy
Flow of Feelings

All People Make Sense
Idontknow
Idontknowhowtosayit
Blame or Self-Responsibility

 

Peace Building: The Essay

Al Turtle's Relationship Wisdom Posted on by  

When two people come together, they have a choice: to move toward Peace or to move toward War. The choices and the actions/habits that go with them are clear when one studies couples who are successful at bringing lasting Peace and those who are not.  (Sadly, most people I meet chose war!) What do you chose?  Here's my essay on this situation.

Continue reading →

The Road to Empathy: The Essay

Al Turtle's Relationship Wisdom Posted on by 5

How about it? Want to learn to be empathic? Want to know when you aren't? Want to improve? I believe that more and more people will be talking about the “need for more empathy.” I believe that the primary cause of conflict in our families, our partnerships, our business, our marriages, our political communities, our churches, and in the world, is a pronounced lack of reliable empathic skills.

Continue reading →

Awakening Purpose in Your Life

Al Turtle's Relationship Wisdom Posted on by 4

I wrote this in August 2010 in response to the postings of some friends in Marriage Advocates, directly on this topic. There are several life events that bring this drive toward Purpose in Life to the surface: a close-brush-with-death is good, retirement or closing-of-a-job in men, children-leaving-home in women are a few examples. In many writings this is called a midlife- or an identity-crisis. Whatever, we have to deal with it.

Continue reading →

Combating Loneliness

Al Turtle's Relationship Wisdom Posted on by 3

A short essay on the new phenomenon of Living Alone.  Seems that this is preferable to being in a relationship where you feel alone.  If your partner feels alone, what can you do to change this and prevent it?  What can you do to not feel alone yourself?  What can you do to impress a new acquaintance that they won't have to feel alone – with you?

Continue reading →