While it’s commonly believed that relationship-centric audiobooks are only for people struggling in their partnerships, nothing could be further from the truth. Even the most loving relationships take commitment, nurturing, and hard work to maintain. With the help of insights from scientists, therapists, and other professionals, you can listen to effective strategies for creating and preserving a healthy, fulfilling relationship, no matter what your relationship looks like.
Renowned researcher and best-selling author Brene Brown takes listeners through 87 of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human in this insightful and truly educational listen. In a time when so many of us turn to escapes such as television and social media in an effort to dull our many (sometimes painful) emotions, this audiobook urges us to lean into our emotions and embrace our emotive human state for what it is—allowing us live more authentically and infuse our relationships with the gift of our most honest selves.
Ada Calhoun originally wrote 'Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give' as an essay for The New York Times. It was a raw, honest, and endearingly funny letter from a woman who, married relatively young for her group of friends, found herself attending the weddings of her peers with a unique perspective on what might lie ahead for each pair of newlyweds. Hilariously narrating her own work, Calhoun picks apart wedding-themed clichés and instead offers a different perspective on marriage — one in which romance is paired with fights and frustrations, that, in their own way lead spouses to discover what true intimacy really is.
Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr. Amir Levine and Rachel Heller scientifically explain why some people seem to navigate relationships effortlessly while others struggle by laying out the three most common personal attachment styles adults have. These styles, once elaborated on, are easy to identify within yourself and have the power to help you understand your own feelings and behavior in a new way. While you might not be excited to find, for example, that your attachment style is "anxious", the good news is that using the science and wisdom of this book as your guide, you can learn to change and adapt your attachment style to something more healthy, leading to better and longer lasting relationships.
New York Times best-selling author Michael Todd tells his own story of heartbreak and eventual healing in this honest and down-to-earth guide to finding love and maintaining healthy relationships. Todd breaks down the concept of intentional dating and urges listeners to take their time to consider what it is they really want before jumping into dating.
One of the most well-known phrases in the world of self-help is "love language", a term coined by Ph.D. Gary Chapman to describe the various strengths and needs that different people bring to relationships. Once a person knows their love language, they can use this information to better understand their current relationship and set clear expectations for their current or potential partners. Performed with authority and empathy by the man who developed the concept himself, this listen is not to be missed for anyone on a quest to better understand and support their most important relationships.
Esther Perel’s bible on domestic relationships highlights important aspects of healthy relationships many of us take for granted or even actively try to do away with. Mystery, uncertainty, and suspense (for example) are important things to nurture in moderation. —Editor Michael
A quick listen that can be devoured in under three hours, Michael Sorensen’s work focuses on one very specific skill: better conversational listening. Narrating his own research, Sorensen draws on his expertise in communication to convey the small but significant changes that can make the difference between confusion and seamless understanding. Sorensen dives into explanations of how these changes can impact different types of relationships with examples that range from conversations between romantic partners to persuasive presenting in a professional setting.
After a lifetime of work as a divorce lawyer, James Sexton realized he had gained a wealth of insights on relationships—insights that, unfortunately, came too late for his clients to take advantage of. In his characteristically hold-nothing-back style, Sexton lays out an entire career’s worth of advice to help couples do the hard but necessary work of maintaining a healthy marriage. Listening to Sexton narrate his personal insights feels like having a conversation with an intelligent and thoughtful friend, ensuring that his wisdom sticks with you long after you’ve finished listening.
Dr. Sue Johnson, a clinical psychologist and couples therapist, presents the therapeutic method she developed called Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which is designed to root out sources of deep dysfunction that lie in a couple’s baseline attachment styles and cause each person to react to relationship stressors differently. As Johnson outlines the basic principles of EFT and illustrates seven different examples of the method in action, she expertly showcases how this method of understanding can bring couples closer together, providing listeners with all of the tools they need to start incorporating elements of EFT into their own relationships.