The conversation ended hours ago, but you are still going over it: the pause, the joke that didn’t land, the thing you wish you hadn’t said. Here is why your mind keeps replaying it, and what can help the replay settle.

You finish the project, people say it went well, and part of you still thinks you just got lucky. Here is why feeling like a fraud can survive every success, and what can help that pattern begin to loosen.

In relationships, conflict is not necessarily the problem. Two people can care deeply about each other and still disagree, misunderstand one another, become frustrated, or say things they later regret. What often matters more is how couples communicate when conflict happens. When certain communication patterns become frequent, they can slowly leave both partners feeling unheard, hurt, or disconnected. In the Gottman approach to couples therapy, four particularly harmful communication patterns...