Tag: Relationships
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3 Steps to an Effective Apology
If you grew up in a dysfunctional family home, you most likely never learned to apologize effectively. As an adult, you probably apologize by quickly stating that you are “sorry” and then making excuses for your behavior or shifting blame to others. However, stating you are sorry does not convince people you are actually sorry.…
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Communication Strategies for Conflict Avoidant People
Sometimes very successful, intelligent people have difficulty navigating conflict at home and at work and behave in conflict avoidant ways. As children they learned that staying quiet and not expressing what they needed was more effective than arguing or speaking out. Staying quiet and avoiding conflict developed into the personality trait known as agreeableness, which…
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The Power of Validation
Validating ourselves and others is critical to creating and sustaining both a healthy self concept and healthy relationships. Many people struggle with self-validation and/or validating the people in their lives. The reason for this is fairly straight forward. As children their parents or caregivers did not effectively validate them, and as a result they did…
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Navigating Conflict with Unreasonable People
Everyone knows that it’s impossible to avoid conflict in our personal and professional life. At times, the people in our lives can be completely unreasonable when it comes to conflict. If you are facing conflict with an unreasonable person, it is critical to find effective conflict management strategies. As a psychologist, I spend countless hours…
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A Compassionate Approach with Difficult People
“Compassion is giving the other person space to be miserable without interfering. It is only when we give space that the cycle of suffering can end.” In life, it is impossible to avoid difficult people. We all know people who are considered difficult and sometimes we are forced to interact with them on a daily basis.…