Avigail Abarbanel

Relationships: Why are they so difficult & what can we do about it? - Fully Human Psychotherapy Tools for Life Avigail Abarbanel

Why are relationships difficult? It's not because we are bad or stupid. It's because we are not well made... What can we do about it? We need to develop our brain beyond what nature has given us and what our childhood has wired into us. In particular, we need to work to integrate our executive functions and our limbic functions. The key to better integration is through our emotions. Only when we are better integrated, we are mature enough to be in relationships that are based on compassion, unconditional acceptance and true intimacy. In this booklet Avigail discusses topics that are significant to relationships and that are not covered in other relationships texts. This booklet does not focus specifically on intimate relationships. This is intentional because many of the problems that people have tend to be present in all of their relationships and because the common denominator in all our relationships is us. Avigail's style is accessible but without dumbing things down. The material in this booklet is based on twenty years of clinical practice, neuroscience and lived experience. This is the fourth booklet in the Fully Human Psychotherapy Tools for Life Series.