Carolyn Riviere

When people talk about sexual performance anxiety, they often describe a moment when intimacy suddenly begins to feel like a test. Instead of noticing warmth, touch, pleasure, or connection, the mind starts asking questions: Am I aroused enough? Is my partner enjoying this? Am I taking too long? What if my body does not respond?

When a client walks into my office and shares that their relationship is falling apart, they often point to standard culprits: money, communication, or a general “growing apart.” But as a therapist, I frequently find myself looking for the invisible third partner in the room—a mental health condition. Whether it is anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression,

When you say “I do” or commit to a long-term relationship, you agree to walk alongside your partner through life’s unpredictable terrain. But when a mental health diagnosis enters the picture—whether it is generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depression, or OCD—it rarely affects just one person. A mental health condition becomes an uninvited

In many struggling marriages, there is a ghost in the room. It sits between the couple during every argument about the laundry, every forgotten anniversary, and every “simple” conversation that spirals into a blowout. That ghost is often undiagnosed ADHD. As a therapist, I have seen couples on the brink of divorce who believe they have

When couples sit on my office couch, they often bring a silent, heavy frustration with them. More often than not, they frame their struggles around a classic cultural narrative: “He’s a man, so he just shuts down,” or “She’s a woman, so she gets too emotional.” For decades, popular psychology told us that heterosexual men and women are