What are essential skills for maintaining healthy romantic relationships?
Joanne Davila explores the psychology behind healthy romantic relationships.
The talk delves into three key skills – insight, mutuality, and emotion regulation – that can lead to healthy relationships and reduce unhealthy ones.
The importance of insight
Insight is a crucial skill for healthy relationships as it involves self-awareness, understanding one’s needs and wants, and being able to anticipate the consequences of one’s behavior.
It helps individuals recognize their own stressors and differentiate them from relationship issues.
Insight also allows one to understand their partner better and make more informed decisions based on past experiences.
The role of mutuality
Mutuality is another key skill that emphasizes the importance of both partners’ needs and the willingness to meet them.
It involves clear and direct communication to express one’s needs and desires, as well as being supportive of the partner’s needs.
Mutuality also plays a role in decision-making, where both individuals’ needs are considered before making choices that affect the relationship.
Emotion regulation in relationships
Emotion regulation is vital for maintaining a healthy relationship.
It involves managing and controlling one’s emotions in response to relationship challenges.
Emotion regulation helps keep emotions in check, maintain perspective, and make rational decisions.
It also enables individuals to tolerate uncomfortable feelings and maintain self-respect and commitment to their own needs, even during difficult times.
