My Advice from Dr. Laura Berman

Do you know who Dr. Laura Berman is?

You've seen her on Oprah -- she was the doctor they would bring on to consult with couples.  She is one of the top sex & relationships therapists in the US, and I love her because her advice is REAL.

I've had XM in my car for about a year now, and the main reason is because of her radio show on Oprah's channel.  My drive home from work was often filled with lots of laughs and always good, solid relationship advice.  Sometimes I got out of my car a little baffled ... really, we're supposed to be doing a few hundred kegels a day?  Whaaaaaaat!  I'm sorry if that is TMI, but come on gals, it's the health of our bodies we're talking about here.

So anyway, imagine my shock when I tuned in last Friday afternoon around 5:10 on my way home from work and I caught her midsentence saying ".... so that's all I can say about that, but just know that this is not goodbye forever, it's just goodbye for now."  STOP. IT.  Dr. Berman no longer on XM?!  And then she mentioned that that very day -- last Friday -- was actually going to be her last day on air. 

So I grabbed my phone and started dialing frantically.  This was my one and only chance to talk to her, ya'll!  I felt like I was back in high school again calling our local radio station incessantly to request a Paula Abdul song or win a "prize pack," whatever that was.

I got busy signal after busy signal after busy signal.  After hearing that first busy signal tone, I'd hang up and hit redial.  Then I got a text from Ian asking me to call him.  He said, "I've tried calling you two times, and it's going straight to voicemail!"  I was embarrassed to say that I'd probably made 74 attempts to call Oprah's radio station in the 8 minutes I'd been in the car and that was probably why his call didn't go thru.  I totally blamed it on being in a "bad signal area" HA.

After speaking with him, I thought I'd try her just a few more times.  Ya'll.  I got through.  The call screeners asked me what I was calling about so I got my thoughts together and told them.  And then, they said they'd put me on hold and do their best to get me on air with her.

By this time I'd arrived home and ran into the house to clue Ian in to what was going on.  He was excited for me because he knows how much I love Dr. Berman's advice!  He even got my car keys ready so that when I got through he could run out to my car and listen to me talk to her.

Next thing I knew, I was on the radio with Dr. Berman herself!  I wished her the best of luck in her future endeavors and told her that I was a newlywed who always thought I'd wait until Ian and I had a relationship issue to give her a call, but since that was the last day to call in, I wanted to just ask her how to make the most out of our marriage and make every day count.

Dr. Berman told me that the most important thing for us to focus on was the big picture of our marriage.  She said that often times, couples let very small things come between them, and these small issues build and fester into larger issues that can cause resentment.  She said that by realizing that we are in this relationship together and we are ALLIES, we will continue to thrive as a couple. 

And she's sending me some books!  This one and this one will be headed my way.  If you want more information about her books, her show on TV, or just her in general, visit her website.  She also has a great page on Facebook that you can check out.

Did you watch Dr. Berman on Oprah or listen to her XM show?  Speaking of relationship advice, what's some good advice that you received?  Not necessarily just husband/wife advice, but all relationships in general -- marriage, dating, family, friend relationships.  Please share!