We were lucky to catch up with Richard Marks recently and have shared our conversation below.
Richard, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I get my resilience from healthy connections, my faith, and my ability to not control the things I can not.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I hold three graduate degrees (PhD and 2 M.A. ) focused on counseling psychology and marriage and family therapy. I am the founder and director of RelateWell Institute. RelateWell is a curriculum that teaches anyone the fundamental principles and skills for healthy and mature relationships. We focus on loving maturely, and how to communicate, confide, solve problems and emotionally regulate. RelateWell is centered around our core value system that we call H=REG (Humility = Respect, Empathy, Goodwill).
We offer retreats, seminars, books and resources for churches and businesses (particularly in the area of emotionally healthy leadership).
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The most impactful was to move away from my deep insecurities developed from living in a divorced home where abuse was prevalent (my dad shocked us with a cow prod at times). I learned that I had value, I mattered, I was loved and loveable and that I had a purpose. My family of origin taught me the opposite.
The best way to develop one’s sense of self is the find healthy and mature attachments, as well as changes one’s self talk and core unhealthy autobiographical beliefs
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
I could answer most of those questions proposed. I chose this one.
What has been most helpful was to learn about healthy and mature relationships and how to love and care maturely. In order to live according to H=REG in all aspects of my life I had to increase my self-worth and esteem. As I learned about how the brain attaches and reacts to relational pain, I was able to navigate my life to one of an an emotional adult. In our work, we describe what an emotional infant, child and adolescent are and then describe mature adults.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.relatewellinstitute.com
- Facebook: Dr. Rick Marks
- Youtube: RelateWell and Dr. Rick
Image Credits
Richard Marks
