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You used to want each other, and now you pass in the hallway like roommates, both too nervous to be the one who brings it up. Sex therapist Dr. Holly Richmond explains why the spark fades for nearly every couple after the first year or so, and the four everyday habits that bring it back, including a gentle way to say “this isn’t working for me” without starting a fight. Ready to break the silence tonight? Grab the free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist at mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe and use it as your first low-pressure conversation starter.

You love your spouse and nothing terrible ever happened to you, yet the moment things turn physical, something in you tightens up and pulls away, and you can’t explain why. Sex therapist Brooke Bralove explains how small childhood hurts, like being belittled or rejected, stay stored in your body as shame, why trying to look perfect quietly shuts sex down, and how couples can rebuild closeness even after betrayal. If you’re not sure what’s really behind your own shutdown, take Dr. Diane’s free quiz, Why Is My Desire Low?, at mylibidodoc.com/libido-quiz. This is the second half of my conversation with Brooke Bralove. Catch Part 1, “Privacy or Secrecy? What I’m Not Telling My Spouse,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GjV5VKA-dY

You've started keeping things to yourself, like what you search late at night and what you wish you could say out loud, and you can't tell anymore whether that's privacy or a secret slowly pulling you two apart. Dr. Diane and a certified sex therapist give you two simple questions that separate healthy privacy from harmful secrecy. They also explain why wanting sex at different levels is normal, and why putting sex on the calendar can bring the wanting back instead of killing it. If you're not sure why things went quiet in your bedroom, take Dr. Diane's free "Why Is My Desire Low?" quiz at mylibidodoc.com/libido-quiz. It sorts out what's physical, what's emotional, and where to start.

If you've been waiting for the "right moment" to feel like lovers again instead of roommates, and it never seems to come, you're not broken, and you're not alone. In Part 2, Dr. Diane and Caroline Hood get practical: why spontaneity is mostly a myth (even early on), how scheduling sex builds anticipation instead of killing the mood, and the one honest sentence that lets you restart intimacy without a heavy, fraught conversation. If you don't know how to break the silence, bring the free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist to your next date night: mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe

If sex has become something you do just so you're not the "bad" partner, or something you keep waiting to feel like doing, you're not broken and you're not alone. In this episode you'll learn why many women don't want sex first and then start, but begin to want it once things are already underway, and why waiting until every emotional issue is fixed before you touch each other can keep you stuck. If you're too tired to even think about being in the mood, start with Dr. Diane's free video e-book How to Want It Again at mylibidodoc.com/libido-video-ebook.

You had the same fight again tonight — different words, same wall — and now you're lying back-to-back on your own edges of the bed, wondering when "partners" quietly became "roommates who occasionally argue." In this episode you'll understand why the clock matters more than being right: repairing within 24 hours, and naming the criticize-then-withdraw loop you're both stuck in, is what actually keeps the distance from hardening into permanent. If tonight followed the same script it always does, take the free Sex Code Language quiz at mylibidodoc.com/freebies to finally see the pattern you and your partner keep triggering in each other.

By now it feels safer to stay quiet than risk another talk that ends with one of you walking off and the other chasing them down the hall. In this episode you'll see that what looks like a communication problem is usually a safety problem — and that giving a tense conversation a clear time limit is often the one small move that keeps one of you from bolting and the other from pushing until you both shut down. When the words have stopped coming easily, start there: grab Dr. Diane's free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist at mylibidodoc.com/freebies — a five-minute way back into the conversation.

You've done the date nights and the "we just need to communicate more" talks, and somehow you're still two polite roommates who happen to share a bed. In Part 2 with therapist Zach Brittle, you'll understand why more communication and more compromise were never the fix — and how two disarmingly simple rules, starting with agreeing on what sex is actually for and what counts, take the pressure out of every initiation so a "no" stops landing like a verdict. Turn those rules into one honest, five-minute conversation tonight with the free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist at mylibidodoc.com/freebies.

One of you wants more, and has no idea how to bring it up without it landing as pressure or getting quietly turned down, so lately nobody reaches at all. By the end of this episode you'll understand why almost every touch has started to read as a demand for sex, and how two questions...what is it for, and what actually counts, take the pressure off far faster than trying harder does. Start tonight with Dr. Diane's free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist: a five-minute, no-pressure way to say what you want when the words won't come: mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe.

You've had this fight so many times you could script both sides, and you're starting to wonder if the two of you are just fundamentally incompatible. In Part 2, you'll learn why that recurring argument almost never means what it appears to — and how naming the fear underneath your own frustration can change the conversation before you've said a word to your partner. When you're ready to translate all of that into something you can actually do together, grab Dr. Diane's free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist at mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe — a low-pressure way to start saying out loud what's been going unspoken.

t's the same argument on a loop — different night, same wall, same silence afterward — and you keep thinking if you could just explain it better this time, it would finally land. By the end of this episode you'll see the fight was never really about the dishes or the schedule; you're both running protective moves that quietly hurt the other, and once you name what's underneath, the same conversation that used to blow up can actually move mountains. Bring Dr. Diane's free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist to your next talk — a five-minute, low-stakes way to say what you mean before it turns into a fight: mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe.

You lie next to someone you love and feel more like co-managers of a household than a couple — and you couldn't name the day it started. In this second part, Dr. Diane Mueller reframes the resentment you've been quietly swallowing as a warning light on the dashboard, not a death sentence — and shows how handing each other just 3% of your week patches the small leaks before the boat takes on real water. Before your next date night, grab her free Yes, No, Maybe Checklist (mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe) and use it to finally say the small things out loud — the ones that pile up when they stay unspoken.

You're not fighting — but you're not really reaching for each other either, and somewhere between the mortgage and the bedtimes the two of you started living like polite roommates who happen to share a bed. By the end of this episode you'll see the thing no one told you: "meeting in the middle" hasn't kept the peace — it's quietly made you both lose, and the way back isn't more compromise, it's getting curious about your partner again instead of managing them. If that curiosity is the part that's gone cold, start small and start solo — take the free Sex Code Language quiz to learn how you're wired and how your partner is, at mylibidodoc.com/freebies.

You're lying awake next to them wondering when reaching over became the hardest thing in the room — and whether asking out loud would fix it or finally break it. In this episode, Dr. Diane Mueller unpacks why a partner's "no" isn't a verdict, why most of the resentment between you is built from assumptions neither of you said out loud, and how non-sexual touch can rebuild the bridge before either of you has to be brave about anything bigger. If you want a way to start the conversation without it turning into a fight, grab Dr. Diane's free YES, NO, MAYBE Checklist at mylibidodoc.com/yesnomaybe — it gives you the language to say what you actually want, hear what they want, and find where you two still meet.

The longer you're married, the harder it gets to even identify what you want from each other — let alone say it out loud without it sounding like a complaint. This first episode breaks down why naming your own wants feels riskier than staying quiet, and gives you a simple method for turning years of unspoken frustration into language your partner can actually act on. Grab Dr. Diane's date night checklist at mylibidodoc.com/freebies to start that conversation this week instead of letting it sit for another year.