Difficult Relationships

At the heart of dealing with difficult people is handling their—and your own—emotions. How do you stay calm in a tough conversation? How do you stay unruffled in the face of passive-aggressive comments? And how do you know if you're difficult to work with? This book explains the research behind our emotional response to awful colleagues and shows how to build the empathy and resilience to make those relationships more productive.

Whether it's a manager who keeps moving the goal posts, an uncooperative colleague, negative friend, or critical family member, some people are just plain hard to get along with. Often, your immediate response is to shrink or sulk, become defensive or attack. But there are smarter moves to make when dealing with difficult people. This book explains how to cope with a range of situations with difficult people and to focus on what you can change.

Difficult Conversations teaches you how to handle even the toughest conversations more effectively and with less anxiety. Based on 15 years of work at Harvard Negotiation Project and consultations with thousands of people, the authors answer the question: When people confront the conversations they dread the most, what works? Difficult Conversations walks you through a proven, concrete, step-by-step approach for understanding and conducting tough conversations.

From the workplace to your personal life, difficult people are everywhere—manipulators, bullies, pessimists, and those who thrive on drama or guilt. Left unchecked, they drain your energy, shake your confidence, and control your emotions. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this powerful book, Trizia Rivera reveals practical, step-by-step strategies to recognize toxic behaviors, set firm boundaries, and respond with calm authority.

Difficult brings to life the conflicts that arise for mothers who are confronted with the unexpected and burdensome dependencies of their adult children associated with mental illness, substance use, or chronic unemployment. Through real stories of mothers and their challenging adult children, this book offers accessible, provocative, and, at times, shocking illustrations of the excruciating maternal dilemma: Which takes precedence—the needs of the mother or of the distressed adult child? Difficult addresses a family situation which too many keep secret.

What if the next hard conversation didn’t wreck your day—or your relationship? What if you could speak honestly, hold your boundaries, and still leave the room with trust intact? In Difficult Conversations Made Simple, communication strategist Sean Ashford distills years of coaching into a practical playbook readers can use at home, at work, and with the people who matter most. Drawing on real-world scenarios—from tense 1:1s to family flare-ups—Ashford shows how small, repeatable moves beat perfect scripts every time. In this book you will discover: A reliable way to open tough ...

Do you ever feel like your past is holding you hostage? As if the mistakes you’ve made, the pain you’ve endured, or the burdens you carry are too heavy to release? You’re not alone. In Stronger in the Difficult Places, Dr. Zoe Shaw opens her heart and her expertise to guide you through the healing process. Offering unflinching honesty but compassionate care, Dr. Zoe shares her own journey of breaking free from complex shame. For years, she believed her past defined her—until she realized she had the power to rewrite the narrative. Now she’s inviting you to do the same.

Charlie Porter is a force to be reckoned with, both on and off the hockey rink. When she accidentally starts a brawl after a game, she’s suspended from school, meaning no hockey this season—and no chance to play in front of college scouts. Alexa Goldstein’s pairs skating partner was hurt in the fight, and with only four months until their next competition, pickings for a replacement are slim. So she strikes a deal with Charlie—skate with her at the competition well enough to place, and her Olympian mother will use her formidable connections to get Charlie in front of scouts at D-1 schools.

Shelby was in a devastating car accident, and everyone in town thinks that she was undergoing more physical therapy in Denver. Instead, Shelby's mother enrolled her in a clinical program to stop the panic attacks that started after the crash. The treatment erased Shelby's memory of the accident, but she can't help feeling as if a piece of herself is missing, that the treatment took more than the doctors claimed.

Ready to handle difficult conversations with confidence and ease? Do you dread tough discussions, fearing they’ll spiral out of control? Struggle to express your needs without sounding aggressive or making others defensive? You’re not alone. Many adults face these challenges, but the good news is that effective communication is a skill you can master. Difficult Conversations Made Easy equips you with proven strategies to navigate tough talks, manage conflict, and build stronger connections. Master the art of starting difficult conversations without triggering defensiveness.

Have you experienced intense emotions at work? Or perhaps this title brings unpleasant memories of someone? Working with toxicity is never pleasant; they tend to drain your productivity and ability to function well in the workplace.

New, updated edition 2024! Dr. Kelley, Relationship Coach, has 25+ years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, as well as her own, her friends and hundreds of clients. She has discovered the 10 biggest mistakes men make. If you haven’t been successful in love, you’re self-sabotaging. All of Dr. Lyn’s suggestions have been proven to work over and over again. She wants you to know them and use them to your advantage. PLUS, secrets to a happy life for men and 20 marriage tips every man needs to know. Please….don’t go on one more date until you read this book!

We attempt or avoid difficult conversations every day—whether dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with a spouse, or negotiating with a client. From the Harvard Negotiation Project, the organization that brought you Getting to Yes, Difficult Conversations provides a step-by-step approach to having those tough conversations with less stress and more success.

How to Do Boring, Tedious, Difficult, but Necessary Things: The Art of Sucking It up and Doing Things You Hate is your no-BS manual for building the self-discipline muscle. You’ll learn how to stop whining, start moving, and do the hard, ugly, necessary stuff that future-you will thank you for (once they stop cursing you). This isn’t easy. If it were, everyone would have six-pack abs, zero debt, and a color-coded closet. Are you tough enough to handle discomfort without tapping out? Can you find the grit to power through tasks that bore or terrify you?

The best news on the planet is that your mother doesn't have to change in order for you to be happy. In fact, author Karen C.L. Anderson will take it a step further and say your mother doesn't have to change in order for you to be free, peaceful, contented, and joyful. You can emotionally separate without guilt: Inspired by her own journey, Anderson's Difficult Mothers, Adult Daughters shows women how to emotionally separate from their mothers without guilt and anxiety so they can finally create a life based on their own values, desires, needs, and preferences.

Most of us know someone who, for whatever reason, always seems to cause problems, irritate others, or incite conflict. Often, these people are a part of our daily lives. The truth is that these trouble makers haven't necessarily asked to be this way. Sometimes we need to learn new approaches to deal with people who are harder to get along with or love.

In divorce and co-parenting, not only do parents need to deal with their own emotions, they may be faced with a daily barrage of hostile calls, texts, social media blasts, and/or emails. How can you regain a sense of control and peace for your own sake and for the kids? For more than a decade, the BIFF method of responding to hostile and misinforming conversation has been used by thousands of people. This book can help you reduce conflict and regain your sanity by teaching what to write, and what to ignore.

Successful people confront well. They know that setting healthy boundaries improves relationships and can solve important problems. They have discovered that uncomfortable situations can be avoided or resolved through direct conversation. But most of us don't know how to have difficult conversations, and we see confrontation as scary or adversarial. Authors Henry Cloud and John Townsend take the principles from their award-winning and best-selling book, Boundaries, and apply them to a variety of the most common difficult situations and relationships.

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck.

Want to find a way to stop someone in your life from gaslighting you without having to struggle a day longer? Time to stand up for yourself, show the world your true worth, and be more than the difficult people ever thought you would be? You’re someone who has so much in life to give, which is why it’s such a puzzle that you think you’re worth nothing right now. Well, actually, it’s entirely understandable, given the pressure you’re constantly being put under by the actions of others.