I loved watching this TED Talk by Esther Perel. In addition to Esther's thirty-year therapy practice in New York City, she also serves on the faculties of The Family Studies Unit, Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center and of The International Trauma Studies Program. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, an AASECT certified sex therapist, a member of the American Family Therapy Academy and of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. Her innovative model for building strong and lasting relationships has been widely featured in the international press, and Esther has multilingual publications across four continents.
Esther is most notable for exploring the tension between the need for security (love, belonging and closeness) and the need for adventure (desire, freedom and distance) in human relationships. In this talk she playfully describes why long term intimacy is so difficult for couples to maintain, and what can be done about it.