200 episodes

The Empowered Wife Podcast is all about fixing your relationship without your man's conscious effort, even if it seems completely hopeless.

Guests share how they fixed their marriages to men with anger issues, narcissism, alcohol abuse, verbal abuse, midlife crisis, affairs, physical abuse and more using the Connection Framework and the 6 Intimacy Skills.

Every show highlights the worst relationship advice of the week, reveals the very common mistakes that everybody seems to be making and shows you exactly what to do instead to have a playful, passionate relationship--like over 15,000 women who have already transformed their relationships and become Empowered Wives.

Listen and subscribe to the Empowered Wife podcast with New York Times bestselling author Laura Doyle, the world's most trusted relationship expert, so you can stop feeling lonely, exhausted and unloved and start feeling desired, taken care of and special again.

The Empowered Wife Podcast Laura Doyle

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.7 • 830 Ratings

The Empowered Wife Podcast is all about fixing your relationship without your man's conscious effort, even if it seems completely hopeless.

Guests share how they fixed their marriages to men with anger issues, narcissism, alcohol abuse, verbal abuse, midlife crisis, affairs, physical abuse and more using the Connection Framework and the 6 Intimacy Skills.

Every show highlights the worst relationship advice of the week, reveals the very common mistakes that everybody seems to be making and shows you exactly what to do instead to have a playful, passionate relationship--like over 15,000 women who have already transformed their relationships and become Empowered Wives.

Listen and subscribe to the Empowered Wife podcast with New York Times bestselling author Laura Doyle, the world's most trusted relationship expert, so you can stop feeling lonely, exhausted and unloved and start feeling desired, taken care of and special again.

    5 Signs Your Husband Has a Crush on Another Woman

    5 Signs Your Husband Has a Crush on Another Woman

    If your husband has a crush on another woman, it can make you feel terrible and not special. He committed to loving you and only you ’til death do us part, and now? He’s using an excited voice with the neighbor, going out of his way to help her, texting someone a lot more than usual, staying at work later with a female colleague, or staring at another woman. And that’s scary. It seems so wrong that he could feel that way, like a betrayal. Crushes can grow into something more. Even if nothing has happened, it’s not how you want him to feel about someone else. How can make him stop crushing on someone else and adore you instead? On today’s episode of The Empowered Wife Podcast, I’m talking about 5 signs your husband has a crush on another woman and 5 questions to ask.
    Plus, even though my guest Irena’s marriage was good, she felt disconnected, which had always bothered her. But things got a lot better when she made this discovery. She’s going to tell us how she made her marriage connected, intimate and authentic so you can do it too.
     

    • 48 min
    My Husband is Always Negative (3 Ways to Change That)

    My Husband is Always Negative (3 Ways to Change That)

    Being around Eeyore all the time is draining and discouraging. How are you supposed to enjoy life when your man is constantly making gloomy comments and throwing cold water on everything? You might wonder when he’s going to snap out of it or look for nutritional supplements for him or sleep aids or a therapist to help him cheer the heck up so you don’t have to be around his apathetic self. But none of that works, in my experience. So on today’s episode of The Empowered Wife Podcast, I’m talking about what to do when your husband is always negative, including 3 ways to change that.
    Then, with all the blowups and cold wars, the temperature at Michelle’s house was getting colder and colder. When she experimented with just one cheat phrase, things got warmer fast. She kept going with the Intimacy Skills, and today her marriage is happy, playful, safe and loving.

    • 1 hr 24 min
    225: 3 Decisive Strategies for When Your Husband Calls You Names

    225: 3 Decisive Strategies for When Your Husband Calls You Names

    It has such a chilling effect on intimacy you’re getting called names, especially rude ones that you wouldn’t even want to repeat. It’s so hurtful and scary. Everyone knows you shouldn’t put up with that if you have any self-respect. Verbal or emotional abuse is not okay. It also makes you feel really bad—unless you practice the Intimacy Skills and know about vulnerability. I know it sounds odd to even use the word “vulnerability” in the same sentence as “name-calling.” How can you be vulnerable when he has just attacked you like that? That sounds crazy, right? It did to me too at first. So on today’s episode of The Empowered Wife Podcast, I’m sharing 3 decisive strategies for when your husband calls you names.
    And, my guest Bre’s husband never wanted to spend time with her. Then she found out he was having an emotional affair with his ex. She wanted a divorce. But when she started to do some things differently, he changed without her even having to ask. Today they spend time together, and her marriage is fun and meaningful. She’s going to tell us how she did it so you can do it too.
     

    • 38 min
    2 Effective Ways to Start Over in a Relationship - Empowered Wife Podcast with Laura Doyle EP# 224

    2 Effective Ways to Start Over in a Relationship - Empowered Wife Podcast with Laura Doyle EP# 224

    When you want a reset, you don’t like the track things are on… There’s too much conflict, tension or distance. Maybe you miss how passionate your relationship once was. Instead of having fun together, it feels like painful drudgery. Instead of being exhilarated together, you feel like awkward roommates. So how do you get back to the good times you once had? Is it even possible? Or was that just him being on his best behavior and now you’re seeing the real him? On today’s episode of The Empowered Wife Podcast, I’m sharing two effective ways to start over in a relationship.
    Plus, my guest Noor felt so broken and depressed in her miserable marriage that she was making plans to leave her husband. But when she started a few new habits, their fights stopped within two weeks! Today she describes her marriage as happy, easy and funny. She’s going to tell us what she did so you can do it too.
     

    • 1 hr 7 min
    Signs Your Husband Resents You (And What to Do)

    Signs Your Husband Resents You (And What to Do)

    When your husband resents you, the tension is so uncomfortable, especially if he’s just scowling or hiding in his cave and being silent, ignoring you, neglecting you. It would be nice if he’d just come out with it and tell you he resents you and WHY. Then you’d know exactly where you stand instead of wondering what’s going to happen. You could make plans, defend yourself, or find a way to make him stop resenting you. You could look for the words to have him reevaluate, including that it’s not good for him to hold a grudge against his wife! The scowling, neglect, and silence are all pretty good signs that he resents you, right? But what if he’s not resentful at all? On today’s episode of The Empowered Wife Podcast, we’re talking about what to do if you see these signs—and 3 common challenges that could be the real problem.
    And, the tension was high for my guest Jane too. She was not controlling at all—she was just trying to help her husband! But that wasn’t going over well. Then she made a decision to do this one thing, which led to great peace and happiness in her marriage and in herself. She’s going to tell us what she did so you can do it too.

    • 28 min
    My Husband Left Me Because He Was Unhappy

    My Husband Left Me Because He Was Unhappy

    It’s so devastating and hurtful if your husband leaves you because he’s unhappy. First, he loved you enough to marry you in front of God and everybody. Then he was so unhappy he left you? That’s not what he promised to do, and it feels like such a betrayal. Not only does it knock the wind out of you, he’s the very person you would turn to for comfort. Instead, you’re left to fend for yourself, which is incredibly scary and lonely. It could even make you feel unlovable and hopeless. But you can change the story, even now. On today’s episode of The Empowered Wife Podcast, we’re talking about what to do if your husband leaves you because he was unhappy.
    Plus, my guest Michelle and her husband were in separate bedrooms and having cold wars that lasted for months. The threat of divorce felt heavy in their house. Then Michelle did a few unconventional things and the fighting stopped. Now her husband is as passionate as when they first married. She’s going to tell us how she did it so you can do it too.

    • 1 hr 6 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
830 Ratings

830 Ratings

Britt4948 ,

Absolutely incredible and eye-opening

I’ve been listening to this podcast on and off for awhile now and finally decided to start really getting into it recently. Combined with the skills from the book, my marriage is becoming happier and I’m becoming more peaceful by remaining on my own paper. 10/10 recommend.

paintentive ,

Put on your own oxygen mask first, with dignity

ETA: I do still believe in the skills and find that they work really well in marriage and all relationships, but the podcast has become a big ad for joining her programs and paying big chunks of money. It comes across as so cult like. Also, she had a guest (Irene) repeat two years apart with different life details (one child vs three children; 13 years of marriage vs 18 years of marriage); it’s possible that she was still telling her own story, but the details were different enough that the second podcast sounded fake, and there was no acknowledgment that she was a repeat guest (I listened to them next to each other by pure chance, and it is absolutely the same woman with the same name and the same voice), so it comes across as if she’s an actress telling a new story to seem like someone new. But I still do love the skills so much and I don’t believe all the testimonials are made up.

Original review: With a few caveats, I have found this podcast to be incredible. I do absolutely recommend reading or listening to Laura Doyle’s book “The Empowered Wife” before listening, for a few reasons, but mostly because the interviews make more sense with that book for background. I understand the knee-jerk reactions many women have to Laura Doyle’s ideas, but on close examination, they boil down to respecting yourself enough to take care of yourself (put your own oxygen mask on first), and treating your spouse with the care and dignity you expect from him. Maybe it’s not always fair that women have to “go first,” but if you want to save your crumbling marriage, and everything you’ve tried hasn’t worked, you might find these skills useful and eye-opening. They really boil down to treating our spouses - and OURSELVES - with respect and dignity. The skills also allow the wife to let of the “emotional load” that so many of us women thought we had to carry. Having someone give me permission to “relinquish control” has done wonders in so many parts of my life, not just my marriage, and in a pretty short time at that. This is not in any way giving up the right to be a well-educated, powerful, opinionated woman or even handing over the reins of our lives - it’s just learning to stand on our own two feet instead of demanding that our spouse hold us up and it’s NOT taking on responsibilities that aren’t really ours in the first place. I may disagree with Doyle about financial management, but I agree on the need to combine finances, and I think there’s plenty of room to take what you can use and leave the rest, and even on that topic, I think it’s more about being fluid than about being rigid. There have been times when the language used, especially by her relationship coaches or by women who’ve been coached and are using the terms used by her coaches, veers into what I think of as over-the-top West-Coast-church-revival sappiness, and I would guess that Doyle has a religious background, BUT the podcast itself is not religious, even though some of the women interviewed do talk about religion often. If you’re a solid critical thinker and able to sift through information without throwing it all away because of one thing you don’t agree with, you’ll find so much helpful, useful information and a generally overall sound approach to marriage (and other relationships).

PedDocMama ,

Answer to prayer

My marriage was rocky, and I was convinced that me pointing that out and insisting on counseling was the way to healing. Meanwhile
I was constantly correcting, nagging, and being unintentionally demeaning to my husband. I’m so grateful for this podcast showing me how to bring intimacy back and makes us both feel valued!

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