Hope +Wellness Blog
little snippets of advice for everyday challenges many people share
Navigating Relationship Shifts on Your Healing Journey
Navigating the relationship changes that accompany your healing journey with compassion—for yourself and for others—is essential.
6 Signs It's Time for Couples Counseling
If you’re wondering when it’s time to start couples counseling with your partner, here are some signs to consider.
I Hurt My Friend's Feelings, What Do I Do Now?
We can only avoid conflict by avoiding our true feelings in a relationship, so it’s not necessarily a sign that the relationship is a bad one. And hurting someone’s feelings doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. We’re all wounded and trying our best, and sometimes we misstep. Taking time to talk to you about their hurt feelings is a sign that your relationship means a lot to your friend or loved one, not the other way around.
Why is Making Friends as an Adult so Hard? + What to Do About It
Friendships become communities of support–communities which go against the American ideal of self sufficiency. Because they present this sort of counter-culture to the American way, we don’t put value onto platonic relationships the way we do with others and we don’t learn how to make, cultivate and sustain intimate them. So what can you do?
4 Tips to Become a Better Listener
Everyone wants to feel listened to and understood by the people around them, but listening well can be easier said than done. Becoming a better listener is a powerful way to improve your relationships with others, whether it’s close friends and partners or even just people you know casually.
Managing Conflict in Friendships
In all long term relationships, conflict is normal and expected and nothing to feel shame or fear about. However, that doesn’t make it easy to manage! It can feel scary when conflict comes up–no matter what type of relationship you have. But if we’re willing to do a bit of uncomfortable work, we can find ways to repair the relationship, and likely make it stronger as well.
Are Your Boundaries Too Firm?
Think of them less like a fence surrounding and protecting you, and more like pillars holding up a structure. They are crucial to the stability of your relationship, but they leave space open for others to come in. And when a boundary is violated, it is less like the fence surrounding you has been smashed, leaving you completely vulnerable, and more like one of the pillars holding up the structure of your relationship has been damaged. The entire thing doesn’t have to come crumbling down if you can work to repair what was hurt.
Breaking up With a Friend
We’re given a lot more social scripts and tools for ending romantic relationships, but not platonic ones. But the bones of it aren’t all that different–this is a person who has played a significant role in your life, who you have spent valuable time with, that you now have to say goodbye to.
3 Tips for Cultivating A More Positive Relationship With Yourself
The word relationship calls to mind our connections with others–with romantic partners, with friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, etc. But you have a relationship with yourself as well–and it’s the longest relationship you’re ever going to have! That alone makes it worth it to spend intentional time reflecting on your relationship habits and where you want your relationship with yourself to go.
4 Ways to Practice Accountability in Your Relationships
Accountability isn’t always the first quality we think of when it comes to good relationships, but it’s actually very important for establishing trust, safety, and intimacy. It’s less obvious than, say, a good sense of humor, but accountability is a crucial piece of the healthy relationship puzzle.
Hope+Wellness is a mental health practice specializing in the treatment of depression, mood, stress, and anxiety in kids, teens, and adults. This is a blog about living well and finding meaning and purpose in the face of difficult challenges. This is a blog about finding hope.
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