When we hear the word “narcissism,” many of us picture someone who is self-absorbed, arrogant, or manipulative. Narcissistic behaviour can indeed look like that on the surface, but when we dig deeper—especially from the perspective of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy—we begin to see a more complex story. IFS provides a compassionate framework to understand narcissism, and it also offers tools that friends and family can use to support healthier relationships with those who show narcissistic behaviours.

As couples begin to navigate difficult conversations in the therapy office, they gradually realize it is much harder to do the same at home. Although clients and I have joked about this in the past… I cannot (nor do I want to) go to your home to remind you and your partner to “slow down” when trying to communicate.

In place of this obviously uncomfortable situation, I offer couples one of my favourite relationship tools: the Feelings Wheel.

Parenting teenagers can be a tricky task, but also incredibly rewarding. In the previous article, we looked at two things parents of teenagers need to stop doing. In this post, we’ll focus on two things they need to start doing: start paying attention & start letting go.

It might not be an easy transition for you to make, but I’m confident that this change will significantly improve the health and wellbeing of your whole family…

Parenting teenagers is a wild ride… and I’m confident in saying that even the best parents have their communication and relationship skills stretched to max capacity when their kids hit the teen years.

Thankfully, it’s not all bad, and there is lots you can do to make these years enjoyable for both you and your child…

For those of you who are like me and don’t like conflict (I mean—really don’t like conflict), I want to share something with you that helped me become able to handle conflict situations better. It’s not “five easy steps” or some secret knowledge that came to me in a dream. It’s something that I gained from counselling, and something that I like to help my clients with too.