The Balancing Act

Creating Healthy Dependency and Connection Without Losing Yourself

By: Nedra Glover Tawwab

Narrated by: Nedra Glover Tawwab

From the bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace, a guide to understanding healthy dependency—to bring our relationships back into balance

I need some space.

Why are you so distant?

You want more than I can give.

Every relationship in our lives – from love and close friendship to extended family and our wider social circle – is a balancing act. If we give too much, we begin to lose ourselves. If we protect ourselves too much, we lose the closeness we all need. Getting the balance right is how we find more connection, authenticity, and joy.

The Balancing Act is a roadmap for finding that balance. With her signature blend of clarity and compassion, therapist Nedra Glover Tawwab sheds light on healthy dependency, and how to achieve it. Along the way, she unpacks buzzwords and trending topics including codependency, attachment styles, inner family systems, and more – offering practical advice for recognizing our needs, navigating conflict, and finding more harmony with the important people in our lives.

Whether you’re yearning for more trust with a spouse or partner, more clarity with a best friend or sibling, or more agency in how you show up in the world, these insights will help you reevaluate, reset, and relate better.

Critic reviews

“Healthy relationships require us to lean on others—but not so much that we lose ourselves. In this clear and compassionate book, Nedra Tawwab offers strategies for finding the right balance.”
—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and host of Dear Therapists


“In The Balancing Act, Nedra Glover Tawwab offers the wisdom so many of us crave: how to stay connected to others without losing ourselves. With compassion and clarity, she shows us that boundaries aren’t walls but pathways to deeper, healthier relationships.”
—Dr. Becky Kennedy, New York Times bestselling author of Good Inside


“Nedra Tawwab brings both insight and heart to her work, and this book is no exception. Whether your goal is to set healthier boundaries, understand your partner more deeply, or decipher the recurring patterns in your relationships, this book will light the way forward.”
—Yung Pueblo, New York Times bestselling author of How to Love Better and Lighter


“A clear, highly readable guide to creating flexible and honest connections to sustain our health and energy. This is one of the best resources I have ever read that describes the balance we are trying to reach in all our relationships. A supremely useful and heartening book for all of us who need to navigate the demands of others while still holding on to what we need for ourselves.”
—Lindsay C. Gibson, PsyD, clinical psychologist and New York Times bestselling author of Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents and How to Raise an Emotionally Mature Child


“The Balancing Act is clear-eyed and thoughtful, replacing the misunderstandings around codependency with empowering insights on human connection. A valuable resource for anyone seeking to cultivate healthy relationships.”
—Kendra Adachi, three-time New York Times bestselling author and host of The Lazy Genius Podcast