When we sing the praises of someone loving, we inevitably refer to the person’s ability to give love. As our accolades praise giving love, the ability to receive love fades into anonymity. Do we believe the capacity to receive love is a given and not worthy of acknowledgment? The combination of my work with hundreds of couples and my own experience has taught me that receiving love often does not happen easily. My experience suggests that a measure of cultural influence offers males more entitlement to receive while holding a solid mandate for females to remain giving.

*Giving is typically an external action. We tend to favor what can be seen, heard, and touched.

*Receiving is primarily an internal........

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