Retrospective Jealousy: When the Past Becomes an Obsession
You can't stop thinking about their exes. You ask questions about details you don't really want to know — and when you...
Read article →Blog — Relationship Psychology
Articles on relationship psychology, communication patterns, and conversation analysis.
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17 upcoming articles
Jealousy and Social Media: When Instagram Becomes Toxic
It's 11:17 PM. You're in bed, your partner is sleeping beside you, and you're scrolling through his Instagram followers list for the third time this week...
Read article →How to Stop Being Jealous: 10 Effective CBT Exercises
You know your jealousy is excessive. You know it makes your partner suffer. You know it consumes you from within.
Read article →Unhealthy Jealousy: Understanding and Overcoming Jealousy
You check their phone the moment they leave the room. You analyze every like on their social media.
Read article →Emotional Dependency: Sophie's Testimony (CBT)
Names and certain details have been changed to protect confidentiality. Sophie is 28 years old and, in her own words, she is 'hooked on relationships.'
Read article →How to Help a Close Person with Emotional Dependency Without Burning Out
You love them. You see their suffering. And you don't know what to do anymore. Your partner, your friend, your adult child or your sibling is...
Read article →Emotional Dependency Test: 20 Questions to Evaluate Yourself
You have doubts. Something about the way you love doesn't feel right, and you sense it. Maybe you check your phone too often.
Read article →7 Signs of Emotional Dependency (and How to Break Free)
You check your phone every five minutes waiting for a message. You adapt your opinions to avoid displeasing others.
Read article →Emotional Dependency and Anxious Attachment: Understanding the Connection
You didn't choose to be emotionally dependent. Your brain made that decision for you, a very long time ago, when you didn't even have the words to express it...
Read article →Emotional Dependency: Recognizing and Freeing Yourself
Emotional dependency is not the same as love. Love nourishes, dependency starves.
Read article →Pornography and Couples: Impact on Expectations and Solutions
\"He prefers his screen to me.\" \"She discovered my history and she's devastated.\" \"We make love and I have pornographic images in my head — I can't be present anymore.\" These sentences, I hear them with increasing frequency in consultation. Online pornography has become a couple's issue as common as money or in-laws — and just as difficult to address.
Read article →Sexless Couple: Understanding and Rekindling Intimacy
\"We love each other, but we're not making love anymore.\" I hear this sentence at least once a week in my Nantes practice.
Read article →Low libido in women: causes and solutions
\"I don't want to anymore. And I don't even know why.\" If you recognize yourself in this sentence, you are far from alone.
Read article →Couple sexuality: Understanding and reviving desire
Couples are having less and less sex. This isn't an impression — it's a statistical fact measured, documented, and confirmed by all major international surveys over the last ten years...
Read article →Couple Therapy: 10 Signs It's Time to Seek Help
You've been thinking about it for weeks, maybe months. You typed 'couple therapy' into a search engine, then closed the tab. You started a sentence with 'What if we saw someone…', then changed your mind.
Read article →Money and Couples: Understanding and Resolving Financial Conflicts
You're not fighting about money. You're fighting about what money represents: security, power, freedom, recognition,...
Read article →Mental load in couples: Understanding and breaking free from it
You're at the office and suddenly you think about calling the pediatrician, that the fridge is empty, that your mother-in-law's birthday is in three days...
Read article →The Wall of Silence in Relationships: Understanding Stonewalling
You need to talk. About this morning's misunderstanding, the tension that's been lingering for three days, that important subject you've been putting off for weeks. You start talking. And across from you, nothing. A wall. Your partner doesn't respond, looks away, shrugs, or leaves the room.
Read article →Nonviolent Communication in Relationships: 4 Key Steps
\"You never listen to me.\" \"You only think about yourself.\" \"It's always the same with you.\"
Read article →Gottman's 4 Horsemen: toxic couple behaviors
What if a psychologist could predict, by observing a couple talking for 15 minutes, whether that couple will still be together in 6 years?
Read article →Over 190 applied psychology articles
The Psychology and Serenity blog offers over 190 articles by Gildas Garrec, CBT psychopractitioner in Nantes. Each article draws on validated psychological models (Gottman, Young, attachment theory, CBT) to offer practical insights.
Couple Communication — Gottman’s 4 horsemen, the 5:1 ratio, stonewalling, NVC
Attachment — Anxious, avoidant, disorganized styles, path to secure attachment
Emotional Dependency — 10 signs, self-assessment tests, CBT strategies
Ghosting & Dating — Ghosting, breadcrumbing, curving, orbiting, zombieing
Manipulation — Gaslighting, coercive control, narcissistic abuse, psychological violence
Infidelity — Understanding, forgiving, trauma bonding, rebuilding
Anxiety & Stress — Relationship anxiety, burnout, rumination, insomnia
Jealousy — Pathological jealousy, retroactive, social media
Breakup & Grief — The 7 stages, no contact, relationship PTSD
Couple & Cohabitation — Moving in, arguments, libido, mental load
Parenting — Parental alienation, co-parenting, blended families
Young Schemas — 18 early schemas, cognitive distortions
Dating Apps — Mental health impact, paradox of choice, dating fatigue
Mental Health — When to consult, online therapy, CBT vs EMDR
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