Tension: Reassuring words can mask power plays; what sounds caring may quietly corral your choices and rewrite your narrative. Noise: Feel-good communication advice equates positivity with kindness, ...

Emotional manipulators tend to benefit from having a sense of emotional intelligence without the added social and internal burdens of compassion or empathy. According to a study from the SAGE Open ...

Recognizing controlling behavior in relationships can be challenging, especially when it develops gradually over time. Many controlling behaviors might initially appear as expressions of love or ...

When things get tough in relationships, it’s very normal, natural and easy to focus on your partner’s behaviors and the problems they bring to the relationship. It’s much harder to see your own ...

I’ve sat across from countless clients in my therapy office, hearing the same heartbreaking whisper: “I never saw it coming.” As a psychologist and podcast host, I’ve learned controlling relationships ...

The tricky part? These behaviors can be so normalized that people don’t even realize they're unhealthy — or that they're doing them. It's the "small" things that, over time, leave a person walking on ...

We tend to associate the word “abuse” with more extreme behaviors and actions. However, abuse occurs on a continuum and can take on different forms and morph and/or escalate over the course of the ...

Dating can be like a beautiful dream until it suddenly morphs into a nightmare. One moment, everything is picture-perfect and they are all over you like butter on toast. The next, they are chipping ...