Stop Making Marriage the Goal - (With Bridgett Blood)

<p>Bridgett Blood is back — a year older, a year braver, and now specializing in the work underneath the work. She&#39;s traded a leap-of-faith move to Nashville for certifications in story work, narrative-focused trauma therapy, and Christian sexual health, all aimed at singles, daters, and engaged couples. This episode isn&#39;t really dating advice. It&#39;s about the thing beneath every relationship you&#39;ll ever have: you can&#39;t show up authentically in romance while you&#39;re disconnected from yourself. Bridgett, Glenn, and Phyllis dismantle the myth of &quot;compatibility,&quot; name why doing love in psycholation is so costly, and get unusually honest about Glenn and Phyllis&#39;s own early marriage — the quiet, the roles nobody chose out loud, and what might have been different if they&#39;d learned themselves sooner.</p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><ul><li>Story work, and why what happened to you at six is still steering your cyclone at forty</li><li>Why &quot;stop making marriage the goal&quot; is a healthier starting line than it sounds</li><li>The compatibility myth — why two matching pieces of paper can&#39;t survive Wednesday</li><li>Psycholation: doing romance, marriage, or sex alone, and why it&#39;s a Connection Codes red flag</li><li>Self-contempt vs. self-hatred — and why the distinction changes everything</li><li>Glenn and Phyllis&#39;s story: quiet compliance, unclaimed identity, and a decision that changed their marriage</li><li>A 25-second case study: Glenn asking a restaurant to turn the music down</li><li>Bridgett&#39;s issue-specific Core Emotion Wheel on her own story of harm and healing</li></ul><p><strong>About Bridgett Blood:</strong> Bridgett is a certified Connection Codes coach based in Nashville, also certified in Christian sexual health and narrative-focused trauma therapy. She works with Christian singles, daters, and engaged couples to help them build an honest, embodied relationship with their own story, identity, and sexuality.</p><p><strong>Resources mentioned:</strong></p><ul><li>The Core Emotion Wheel (free download) → <a href="connectioncodes.co/get-the-cew" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">connectioncodes.co/get-the-cew</a></li><li>Find a certified coach → <a href="connectioncodes.co/coaches#find-a-coach-menu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">connectioncodes.co/coaches#find-a-coach-menu</a></li><li>Foundations Masterclass → <a href="connectioncodes.co/foundations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">connectioncodes.co/foundations</a></li><li><a href="https://a.co/d/049Tuotq" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><em>Make Sense of Your Story</em> by Adam Young</a></li><li><a href="https://a.co/d/0glj5g9y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><em>The Deep Rooted Marriage</em> by Dan Allender &amp; Steve Call</a></li><li>Bridgett online → <a href="BridgettBlood.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">BridgettBlood.com</a> | Instagram → @BridgettBlood</li></ul>