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Upcoming WORKSHOPS

Proud Sponsors of Dr PAT LOVE to PERTH, Australia:
Presenting on Love, Sex and Relationships
January 30 - February 3, 2008.
Click for more information

Couples Workshop
Getting the Love You Want
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
June 13- 15, 2008

Singles / Conscious Individuals Workshop
Keeping the Love You Find
Mundaring, WA, United States
June 6- 8, 2008

Parenting Workshop
Born to Love
South Perth, Western Australia, Australia
May 30- June 1, 2008

Click here for complete schedule

ARTICLES by SUSIE ITZSTEIN:
(articles are in PDF format and will open in a new window)

May 2002 in Mundaring Magazine
LOVE MATTERS
Surveys show Australians value having a happy relationship above all else. 90% of your happiness or misery is determined by your primary love relationship. It affects your health, wealth, work, sexual satisfaction and your kids.
Are You:
~in a good relationship and want to make it deeper?
~about to get married and want to co-create a fulfilling life partnership?
~in a difficult relationship and want to resolve long-standing conflicts?
~near break-up or divorce and want to decide if the relationship can be saved or how to save it and repair and re-build it?...(read more)
June 2003 in Mundaring Magazine
LOVE IS A DECISION
Greetings! It’s an early Winter morning in the Hills as I sit at my desk in front of the window, looking out over a newly awakening day...heavy with the welcome rains of the last days...yet everywhere I look there are raindrop jewels on the leaves which feel so light and precious...and as well the opening buds of jonquils and wattles here and there...and now, the jewels sparkle as glimpses of sun filter through the trees. I give thanks for such Beauty and Aliveness and Blessings...(read more)
February 2004 in Mundaring Magazine
MARRIAGE AND PARENTING - FLYING HIGH AND TOUCHING THE CLOUDS
The plane lifts off the tarmac in Melbourne and the journey back to Perth begins and I look out the window and reflect on the fullness of our short visit. My partner Shelton and I have been working very full days over this short visit of just one week as we have presented two workshops - one for couples to learn how to build and repair and enrich and nourish their relationships and the other for parents to expand their knowledge and skills around parenting.
As the plane lifts effortlessly yet higher and higher and we are seeming to touch the clouds I reflect on my experience over these days and give thanks for the privilege of these couples sharing with us and each other...(read more)
March 2004 in Mundaring Magazine
Relationship Matters: Marriage Tips by Dr. John Gottman:
“Keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life."
(Kahlil Gibran)
Greetings to Everyone from Seattle, U.S.A. where I spend about half of my time as this is the Home place of my partner and getting to be my second Home. What a beautifully glorious time to return to the North West! Everywhere such an abundance of early Spring leaves and buds which are particularly noticeable in their bursting open on the deciduous trees and plants...some already blossoming offering their magnificent blooms in all shades of pink...each bud heralding the delights that each new Spring day will bring...(read more)
May 2004 in Mundaring Magazine
The Truth About Love - Use Your Brain To Change Your Heart: A Neuro-Affective Approach To Relationship Happiness
Greetings! I am writing this to you flying from Vancouver on route to Vienna via Frankfurt.
The flight path that we are following is travelling over Hudson Bay and Greenland up over the very untravelled lands of the far, far north. As we fly over mile after mile of snow and ice that just seems to go on forever I wonder how much of this area has never been journeyed through by anyone. The topic I wish to write about today may seem to many, and indeed it does to me, like journeying into such untravelled lands. Let me introduce you to Neuro-Affective Therapy (NAT) and how to create permanent change...(read more)
October 2004 in Mundaring Magazine
60 Ideas for Having an Affair- with Your Spouse / Committed Partner!
Firstly let me say that this is not my idea. But it is such a marvellous idea I wanted to pass it on. It comes with thanks from a colleague of mine Dawn J. Lipthrott. Dawn is an Imago Therapist and Director of The Relationship Learning Centre that provides education, coaching and counselling for individuals and couples who want to build and sustain solid relationships. “We help you take the relationship that you have and make it into the one you want” is her offer...(read more)
December 2005 in Living Now
GIVING AND RECEIVING AT CHRISTMAS:
"The only gift is a portion of yourself" (Emerson)
This is traditionally the time of the year for Giving and Receiving. A time for JOY and PEACE and MIRACLES on Earth. It is a time to rejoice, to make merry and honour, and to drink a toast to all we've experienced and achieved this year. Let us sit back and reflect and count our many blessings and celebrate and applaud all our amazing lives and growth and breakthroughs.
Yet, some of you are maybe saying it's also a time of stress ….and haassles…(read more)
January/February 2006 in Living Now
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return....." (Moulin Rouge 2001)
Valentine's Day
What image does this conjure up for you?
For me, here I am about to write an article about Valentine's day and I have spent hours, days thinking about this, flitting through ideas in my head, leafing through pages of my favourite books, poems, songs on Love..., my favourite writers and theorists on love and relationships (being as one of the many hats that I wear is as a marriage and family Therapist)... and I'm thinking about you the reader and I keep talking myself out of writing anything with too much feeling because I tell myself...(read more)
March 2006 in Living Now
“AS SCARCE AS HEN’S TEETH” – HOW TO FIND A MARRIAGE/RELATIONSHIP COUNSELOR
Oh No – not again!
Here I am sitting in the dentist’s chair - hearing his unrelaxing music interspersed with drilling noises, looking at his grey walls and his uninspiring pictures, smelling all those pervasive medical smells – with the upper part of my left jaw and face so numb I wonder whether I’ll ever feel it again, and he says: “Well we've drilled out the old filling and decay and it’s too deep to put in a composite enamel filling so we have no choice but to use a mercury amalgam filling!”
What do you do?? ...(read more)
April 2006 in Living Now
Why You Choose Your Partner and What Your Marriage/Committed Relationship is Trying To Teach You...
You thought you chose your Beloved because they were soft, gentle, loving or maybe strong, dependable, intelligent or playful, handsome, free-spirited, spontaneous, generous, spiritual, good-looking, had a great body, sexy, beautiful…you know all those gorgeous qualities we place at the head of our lists if we are thinking about what to look for in our ideal partners. But the part of our brain that comes up with all these wonderful qualities is unfortunately not the part of us that chooses our partners.
There is a hidden reason you picked your partner and a hidden agenda in love relationships...(read more)
June 2006
Relational and Environmental Intelligence - "Who I Am Makes A Difference"
Ten Things to do to Make a Difference in Your Relationships
Very warm greetings to everyone from Seattle where we arrived a few days ago. It’s early morning and I'm still in my PJ’s sitting on a big comfy couch with the sun streaming through the window behind me warming my back so luxuriously on this start to this beautiful new day. I'm someone who likes the warmth so I'm feeling very indulged and blessed to just take the time to enjoy being warmed by the sun….and how many more blessings there are all around me…
My attention is caught by the novelty of a bunch of frisky squirrels frolicking playfully in the trees outside and how much fun they seem to be having,…(read more)
November/December 2006
AWAKENING – THIS YEAR, DAY, MOMENT IS MINE TO CHOOSE!
It is just 6.30am. I'm a bit jet-lagged. I have awakened this morning in a completely new place in the world for me. I'm talking physically here, as I'm in Beijing where we arrived last night. I've never been to China before. Wow, what a whole different world! First impressions are freeway after freeway, road after road, all shape and size of high-rise buildings; few less than 25 stories high. I remember thinking on the 45-minute taxi drive from the airport that whoever invented concrete, steel and fluorescent lighting must have made a mint! They certainly have made a difference!…(read more)
January/February 2007 in Living Now
LIFE INSURANCE - WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
I wonder whether you realize this simple but powerful fact - that your survival literally depends on the healing power of love, intimacy and relationships. As individuals, as communities, as a country, as a culture. Love and survival - what do they have to do with each other?
Says noted expert on heart disease, Dr Dean Ornish M.D. in his book "Love And Survival -The Scientific Basis For The Healing Power Of Intimacy",
"Love and intimacy are a root of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing.... If a new drug had the same impact, virtually every doctor in the country would be recommending it for their patients!! ...(read more)

Shelton Huettig, M.A., Marriage and Family Therapist
2808-II East Madison, Seattle, WA. 98112. U.S.A.
Tel: (0011 1) 206 720 1991
email: shuettig@aol.com

Susie Itzstein, B.A., Psychotherapist/Educator
Warm Fuzzy Hill, 50 Traylen Rd, Stoneville 6081. West Australia.
Tel: +61(8) 92952328
Mobile: 0414 771 741
email: susie@graduate.uwa.edu.au