To anyone living with a partner who is not emotionally available, the experience can be extremely difficult and even painful.
As a therapist, I have heard many wives and husbands express their frustrations over not feeling emotionally connected to their partner. When it comes to intimate relationships ‘feeling connected or close’ is often a make-it or break-it situation.
When we speak of not being emotionally available, we are referring to individuals who have learned to emotionally detach from their own emotional world or cut off from others around them. Often emotional cut-offs can seem as cold and isolating as the Great Wall of China. Frequently these walls have been unconsciously created by past losses or trauma . . . emotionally, relationally, or spiritually.