What Your Parents Never Taught You About Healthy Love: Essential Lessons for Lasting Relationships
Have you ever wondered why no one taught us about healthy love?
As a relationship expert with over 40 years of experience, I’ve discovered that while we take classes for everything from medical school to golf lessons, most of us never learned the fundamentals of healthy love from our parents or society.
The Truth About Healthy Love
When I talk about healthy love, I mean the kind of love where couples stay connected through both good times and bad.
It’s about having a relationship where you can express your feelings openly – whether you’re sad, angry, or disappointed – without pushing your partner away or resorting to yelling and screaming.
Why We Struggle with Healthy Love
Most of us grew up watching our parents handle conflict in unhealthy ways. Instead of seeing repair and understanding, we witnessed:
– Fight or flight responses
– Punishment through yelling and bickering
– Emotional withdrawal and avoiding difficult conversations
– Suppression of genuine feelings and experiences
The good news is that healthy love can be learned at any age.
Thanks to advances in neuroscience, we now know our brains have “neuroplasticity” – the ability to create new patterns and ways of relating.
Key Components of Healthy Love
Through my work with couples, I’ve identified three essential elements for creating healthy love:
Repair: Learning to acknowledge when we’ve responded poorly and making it right
Attunement: Truly understanding and “getting” your partner’s experience
Curiosity: Being genuinely interested in your partner’s different needs and perspectives
Learning Healthy Love is Possible
Just like learning any new skill, developing healthy love takes practice and guidance.
Whether you’re in your 20s or 80s, you can learn to:
– Express yourself authentically instead of just presenting what you think others want to see
– Create a safe environment where both partners can be fully themselves
– Handle conflicts in ways that strengthen rather than damage your connection
– Understand and respond to different love languages and needs
Ready to Develop These Skills and Implement Them Into Your Relationship?
If you’re ready to develop the skills for healthy love, I invite you to watch my detailed video below.
I share specific strategies and insights from my decades of experience helping couples create stronger, more fulfilling relationships.
