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The Virtual Couch

Playing Devil's Advocate is NOT Going to Help Your Marriage! More EFT Tools To Help Your Marriage

The Virtual Couch

Tony Overbay LMFT

Education, Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Self-improvement

5643 Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2019

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of the most unproductive phrases Tony hears in couples counseling is “I’m just playing Devil’s advocate?” Are you? Or are you trying to poke holes in your partner’s reality? Only the “devil” in this scenario truly knows, but regardless, there’s even a productive way to GET TO the playing of the role of “devil’s advocate” and that is by first creating an environment where you are able to hear your partner, truly hear them, and create an environment where they feel safe, heard, like they can trust you. THEN if you still feel the need to question the floor may in fact be open for questions AND your partner may be in a better position to entertain your questions. Tony also gives the origin of the “Devil’s advocate” (hint, it was an actual position back in olden times!) as well as a few fun facts about Halloween. He also shares his favorite, yet most obnoxious, two-line joke, a holdover from the “Humor in Therapy” episode. In this episode Tony gives an emotionally focused therapy (EFT) refresher from the folks at Goodtherapy.com you can find that here https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/emotionally-focused-therapy (https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/emotionally-focused-therapy) He also shares the history of the term Devil’s Advocate, that can be found here https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/devils-advocate.html (https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/devils-advocate.html) and the ever-classic two-line jokes from the Humor in Therapy episode of the Virtual Couch can be found at the Boredpanda.com site here https://www.boredpanda.com/funniest-two-line-jokes/ (https://www.boredpanda.com/funniest-two-line-jokes/)   Tony Overbay's new book, co-authored with author Joshua Shea (The Addiction Nobody Will Talk About: How I Let My Pornography Addiction Hurt People and Destroy Relationships https://amzn.to/2O0KxAd (https://amzn.to/2O0KxAd)) He's A Porn Addict...Now What? An Expert and a Former Addict Answer Your Questions, is now available on Amazon, you can find it here https://amzn.to/2KylIcz And you can find out more about Tony's pornography recovery program The Path Back by visiting http://pathbackrecovery.com (http://pathbackrecovery.com/) And visit http://tonyoverbay.com (http://tonyoverbay.com/) and sign up to receive updates on upcoming programs, and podcasts.   The Virtual Couch is sponsored by http://Betterhelp.com/virtualcouch (http://betterhelp.com/virtualcouch) Betterhelp.com is the world's leading provider of online therapy. Their mission is to make professional counseling accessible, affordable, and convenient, so anyone who struggles with life's challenges can get help, anytime, anywhere. Head to http://betterhelp.com/virtualcouch (http://betterhelp.com/virtualcouch) for 10% off your first month of services.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Coming up on today's episode of the virtual couch, sure Halloween may be coming, but why playing the role of devil's advocate is not very helpful for your marriage.

0:10.4

That and a lot of emotionally focused therapy, good old couples communication techniques coming up on the virtual couch. Couch.

0:30.6

Hey, before we get started today, I do want to talk about my friends at betterhelp.com.

0:35.9

Now, I typically read emails that I receive from listeners, and those emails are fantastic.

0:43.3

I think my point there was I wanted people to recognize that they are getting help through BetterHelp.com, specifically BetterHelp.com slash virtual couch. But I was listening to BetterHelp.com has ads on a lot of different podcasts,

0:49.1

a lot of my favorite podcasts. And I was listening to one of the reads of the ad. and it was wonderful. It was fantastic. The data was there.

0:56.6

But, you know, it kind of dawned on me. Hey, I'm a therapist. This is, I believe everybody could use a little bit of therapy in their life truly to be able to process difficult things, to be able to work through things that they've always kind of been stuck on or things that

1:11.2

have just kicked around in their head that they're afraid to talk about or things that they're even

1:14.4

aware of that are holding them back from living an incredible life and I know part of that struggle

1:19.3

can be finding a therapist it can be if there aren't a lot of therapists in your area and let's be

1:24.9

honest it can be for a lot people, there's still a very negative

1:27.8

stigma around therapy, and it can be the process of having to go to a therapist, worrying about who

1:32.8

I will see, who I see in the parking lot, or in the waiting room, or what if the receptionist

1:37.3

gives me the stink eye, whatever it is, I understand. So that's where BetterHelp.com comes in.

1:43.7

So if you go to BetterHelp.com slash virtual couch, you can set up an account there, and they have a very broad range of expertise.

1:51.1

I've looked through this.

1:51.9

They have people that are amazing therapists with treating OCD, treating anxiety, depression, anxiety.

1:58.4

I said anxiety, but lots of people that can treat anxiety there.

2:02.0

But they have different modalities. My favorite one, acceptance and commitment therapy.

2:05.2

They have acceptance and commitment therapy therapists, cognitive behavioral therapist.

2:08.9

They have behavioral therapy. They have so many options there.

2:12.2

But the key is when you go, when you sign up, when you go to betterhelp.com slash virtual

...

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