Stop Making Marriage the Goal - (With Bridgett Blood)

Bridgett Blood is back — a year older, a year braver, and now specializing in the work underneath the work. She'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't really dating advice. It's about the thing beneath every relationship you'll ever have: you can't show up authentically in romance while you're disconnected from yourself. Bridgett, Glenn, and Phyllis dismantle the myth of "compatibility," name why doing love in psycholation is so costly, and get unusually honest about Glenn and Phyllis's own early marriage — the quiet, the roles nobody chose out loud, and what might have been different if they'd learned themselves sooner.

In this episode:

• Story work, and why what happened to you at six is still steering your cyclone at forty
• Why "stop making marriage the goal" is a healthier starting line than it sounds
• The compatibility myth — why two matching pieces of paper can't survive Wednesday
• Psycholation: doing romance, marriage, or sex alone, and why it's a Connection Codes red flag
• Self-contempt vs. self-hatred — and why the distinction changes everything
• Glenn and Phyllis's story: quiet compliance, unclaimed identity, and a decision that changed their marriage
• A 25-second case study: Glenn asking a restaurant to turn the music down
• Bridgett's issue-specific Core Emotion Wheel on her own story of harm and healing

About Bridgett Blood: 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.

Resources mentioned:

• The Core Emotion Wheel (free download) → connectioncodes.co/get-the-cew
• Find a certified coach → connectioncodes.co/coaches#find-a-coach-menu
• Foundations Masterclass → connectioncodes.co/foundations
• Make Sense of Your Story by Adam Young
• The Deep Rooted Marriage by Dan Allender & Steve Call
• Bridgett online → BridgettBlood.com | Instagram → @BridgettBlood