He said it quietly, almost apologetically, during a Family Counseling Intensive: “I know my parents care about me, but I don’t feel cared for.”

I could see the words stop his parents in their tracks. Of course they cared. They worried, thought deeply, and talked about their kids constantly. They had invested significant time, energy, and resources into this Intensive precisely because they cared.

And yet, something essential was missing.

The Repair Your Relationship Podcast is hosted by Stacey Curnow, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Relationship Specialist, and founder of Asheville Family Counseling.

I want to tell you about a couple I worked with recently during a Couples Counseling Intensive.

Let’s call them Ozzie and Harriet.

They were long-married, thoughtful, deeply committed to one another, and genuinely invested in their relationship. They weren’t in crisis. There was no betrayal, no looming breakup. But something subtle and persistent had been wearing on them.

Harriet had been feeling increasingly anxious as they prepared to complete a big project together. Ozzie, on the other hand, felt unfairly criticized. He experienced Harriet’s anxiety as blame—like she was holding him responsible for not solving a problem fast enough or well enough.

They both wanted relief. But even more than that, they wanted to find their way back to understanding each other.

The Repair Your Relationship Podcast is hosted by Stacey Curnow, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Relationship Specialist, and founder of Asheville Family Counseling.

When Heated Rivalry exploded into the cultural consciousness, people kept asking the same incredulous question. How is it that an M/M hockey romance has resonated so deeply with women across the world?

But sitting with it, really sitting with it, the answer feels less surprising and more inevitable. This story didn’t just arrive at the right moment. It named a truth that we’ve kept locked away for a very long time.

Shane and Ilya didn’t just give us a love story. They gave us a model of desire without shame and commitment without self abandonment. Millions of women saw themselves and said YES, because it finally told their truth.

If Heated Rivalry stirred longing, grief, or a quiet “why don’t we have that” in you, please hear this. That response is not silly or unrealistic. It’s information.

This is exactly what my Couples Counseling Intensives are designed to support.

I work with couples who feel stuck as roommates, separated by emotional distance or quiet resignation, and help them move back into authentic connection, desire, and real intimacy - connection that is lived, embodied, and sustainable in your actual relationship.

This work is brave.

It’s deeply vulnerable.

And it is possible.

Learn more here: https://ashevillefamilycounseling.com/couples-intensives/

The Repair Your Relationship Podcast is hosted by Stacey Curnow, a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Relationship Specialist, and founder of Asheville Family Counseling.