How to Respond When Someone Asks, ‘What Do You Believe Now?'

If you’ve experienced religious trauma, you know that conversations about your beliefs can feel like walking into a minefield. Whether it’s a curious friend, a concerned family member, or someone from your former faith community, the question, “What do you believe now?” can bring up waves of anxiety, frustration, or exhaustion. You may feel pressure to explain yourself, defend your choices, or avoid the topic altogether. In this post, we’ll explore kind, practical ways to respond that honor your boundaries, protect your emotional well-being, and engage (or disengage) in a way that feels safe for you.

First, Keep the Question Asker's Intent in Mind

When a person asks what you believe now, pausing to consider their relationship to you and their intent can help you decide how and whether to engage in the conversation. Are they expressing genuine curiosity, or are they fishing for a debate? Based on what you know of their beliefs, do you anticipate that they'll be supportive of you, or will they try to persuade you to see things their way? Have you been in similar conversations with them before and felt dismissed or trapped? Even if they have genuine concern for you and your wellbeing rooted in religious dogma that makes them fear for your eternal well-being, that concern may lead to a conversation where you feel added pressure to agree with their views.

Remember: You Have Many Options for How to Respond

Having considered the question asker's intent, remember: you have options for how you respond. You do not have to provide an exact recounting of your religious or spiritual evolution, deconstruction, or de-conversion! In fact, this may not be safe given the asker's intent or relationship with you. Your response can vary from open and vulnerable to guarded and boundaried while still remaining honest. 

Here are three ways you can respond when someone asks what you believe now: 

Boundaried: "It's an important journey, but I'm in a solid place right now. Thanks for asking." This response acknowledges that your beliefs have evolved without being specific, and it articulates that regardless of what other people might think if they knew your beliefs you feel stable, which is what matters. This response might be best for someone you have a hard time trusting, who may have put pressure on you in the past to conform to their beliefs, like a parent or a community leader. If they continue to prod, stay boundaried with a response like, “I really appreciate you asking, but it’s a tough topic for me to talk about. Maybe someday I’ll be ready to share more, but not right now.”

Redirect & Explore: "It’s been a journey! How about you? What do you believe now? Is it different from how you were raised?" This response again acknowledges that your beliefs have evolved without going in depth, and allows the question-asker to share insights on their beliefs so that you can continue to evaluate intent and emotional safety. This makes it a great option for casual acquaintances or people from your faith community you may have not interacted with in awhile. 

Open & Vulnerable: "I was raised to believe [X.] I have since been exploring alternatives to this belief system including [Y & Z] and grappling with the impacts of being raised in [X] belief system." Save this response for the people you feel confident discussing this with, who have demonstrated shared beliefs and values. 

Look for Opportunities to Strengthen Your Sense of Self

These questions, against the backdrop of religious trauma, can feel particularly painful and dangerous. In the past, answering a question like "what do you believe?" with something other than full-throated support for the fundamentals of your religious community might have led to punishment from a parent, alienation from important relationships and the broader community, or other consequences like losing jobs, funding, and housing. Your brain and your body are still working on healing from that fear of consequences for answering questions like this honestly. There still may be a risk of relational consequences, which is one reason way boundaries help -- they allow you the opportunity to maintain connection with people who may disagree with you, while still honoring your own need for space. 

These questions can also provide other opportunities to clarify your beliefs, heal the pain of suppressed parts of yourself, or even discover that the question asker may have similar experiences, allowing you to share newfound camaraderie and mutual support.  

Religious Trauma Therapy Near You

Healing from religious trauma is a deeply personal journey, and you don’t have to navigate it alone. A therapist who understands the unique challenges of untangling harmful beliefs, setting healthy boundaries, and rebuilding a sense of self can provide the tools, validation, and support you need. If conversations about your beliefs leave you feeling drained or unsafe, therapy can offer a safe space to process those experiences and practice new ways of responding. Reaching out for help is not a sign of weakness—it’s a step toward reclaiming your voice and living in alignment with your own values.

ABOUT ECC: 

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for adults, children & teens, relationships, and families in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.

Is My Partner Gaslighting Me? Here's How to Know

Is my partner gaslighting me? Chances are if you’re in a relationship that you’ve wondered this before, especially in the midst of a conflict or disagreement. Gaslighting is a term that has entered the cultural lexicon in the last decade, yet we often hear confusion from clients about whether their experiences actually meet the definition of gaslighting, or something less serious. In today’s post, we unpack this loaded term to help you discern gaslighting from other communication issues in relationships.

What is Gaslighting?

‘Gaslighting’ is a term that has been popularized in modern culture to describe insidious manipulation and psychological control to keep the victim reliant upon the perpetrator, i.e., make it harder for them to leave the relationship. The term comes from the 1938 play Gas Light, which was later adapted into two films, Gas Light (1940) and the better-known Gaslight (1944). The story follows a young woman, Paula, whose husband Gregory, slowly manipulates her into believing that she is going insane. Whenever Gregory leaves their house, Paula notices that the gas lights on the main floor grow dim and she hears noises coming from their boarded up attic, which Gregory always insists are in her imagination. (Spoiler alert: it’s Gregory in the attic the whole time, trying to steal Paula’s family estate.) As in the play and films, the perpetrator acts in ways that are harmful to the victim, but when the victim tries to address the issue with the perpetrator, they respond in ways designed to make the victim question reality, their memory, and their sanity.

What We Get Wrong About Gaslighting

All human relationships are flawed and imperfect. There are bound to be disagreements, miscommunications, and manipulation. Often, how we show up in our adult relationships is shaped by the relationship dynamics we experienced in our families of origin: how our parents and caregivers treated us, how our parents and caregivers treated each other, etc. In moments of stress and conflict, it is common for all of us to exhibit maladaptive behaviors that were normalized in our families—even if we love and respect the other person, and even when we strive to be self-aware.

In the age of social media, concepts like gaslighting can spread in the cultural conversation in ways that are both helpful (more people being aware of abuse dynamics!) and hurtful (misinterpreting conflict with a partner out of fear of being gaslit.)

Although there are similarities, emotional invalidation and manipulation are different from gaslighting, and it’s important to take a step back when you’re in conflict with someone to discern the difference.

Manipulation vs Gaslighting: What’s the Difference

All gaslighting is manipulation, but not all manipulation is gaslighting. The key differences between manipulation and gaslighting are power dynamic and intent (e.g., does your partner want to influence you, or do they want to control you?)

Manipulation is a common human behavior: children might lie or misconstrue facts in an attempt to influence their caregivers or earn attention, yet because of their cognitive development, and because of the power dynamic in the adult-child relationship, children aren’t capable of gaslighting or abusing adults. Similarly, adults can be manipulative without the intent to control or harm the other person, but simply because it’s a maladaptive communication style they learned in their families, or because they themselves were abused or brainwashed. They may not be fully aware that they’re doing it, or know how to communicate their needs in a healthier way. Regardless of a person’s level of self-awareness or intention, manipulation doesn’t have to be tolerated. In a healthy relationship, partners will work together to bring these behaviors out into the open and learn to accept influence from one another, i.e., be open to the other person’s ideas and opinions, reach a compromise in disagreements, and achieve greater understanding of the other.

Gaslighting, on the other hand, is fundamentally an abuse of power over another person or group of people. It can occur in all kinds of relationships, but one common factor is the power dynamic: one-on-one between parent and child, a boss and employee, or a leader and their follower(s) in religious organizations or government institutions. In romantic relationships, the power dynamic is often established through physical and/or financial power. The intent of gaslighting is to intentionally control the victim(s) by changing their perception of reality, reducing their self-confidence and trust, and making the victim reliant upon the gaslighter. Gaslighting uses emotional invalidation and manipulation as tools to gain total control over the victim.

Tactics Abusers Use to Gaslight

Relationships with gaslighters always start out positive. Your trust in them is essential; without it, they can’t control you. Many abusers can be especially effusive and generous early in the relationship to build trust and financial dependence. This is called love-bombing and it is one reason why it’s important not to beat yourself up or feel ashamed that you trusted them early on, because that was their plan.

Gaslight often happens gradually, in stages, which is another reason it can be hard to recognize. The abuser will begin to withdraw their affection and act out in hurtful ways, only to “hoover” at the first sign of their victim questioning them: they’ll shower their victim with more gifts, praise, and affection to quell any suspicion or possibility of the person leaving.

There are several abusive tactics that gaslighters use to control their victims, all with the intent to obscure truths that they don’t want the victims to recognize.

• Withholding – feigning innocence or confusion when the victim expresses hurt or anger, or asks to discuss the abuser’s behavior.

• Countering – denying the victim’s version of events (thereby making the victim question their own memory and sanity.)

• Blocking/diverting – changing or shutting down the conversation.

• Trivializing – minimizing the victim’s feelings.

• Forgetting/Denial – pretending that they don’t remember events that the victim brings up in conversation (again, with the goal of making the victim question themselves.)

Signs of Gaslighting

Because gaslighting, by design, is meant to obscure someone’s harmful intentions, it can be very difficult to discern what’s happening in the midst of it. It’s important to check in with your own feelings and behavior.

Here are some common warning signs that you are experiencing gaslighting:

• You second-guess yourself constantly and often feel confused, disoriented, or crazy.

• You apologize constantly to your partner.

• You have trouble being honest about your relationship with people you trust (friends, family, coworkers), which can manifest in a couple of ways:

  • You frequently apologize or make excuses for your partner’s behavior.

  • You frequently withhold details about your relationship so that you don’t have to apologize or make excuses.

• You feel like you can’t be honest with your partner about your feelings or things that have happened, because of how they might react.

Impacts of Gaslighting on Victims

Gaslighting can be psychologically devastating with long-lasting consequences for victims:

• Rebuilding self-trust and confidence in one’s own intuition and perception of reality can take many years

• Rebuilding trust in others and opening oneself up to new relationships can also take a long time

• In addition to the psychological impacts, there can be other consequences, such as having to rebuild financial independence if the abuser used money as a means of control.

You’re Not Alone: Therapy for Victims of Gaslighting

Realizing that you are being gaslighted by a loved one – whether it’s a romantic partner, a parent, or someone else close to you – is a very painful experience. It can also be difficult to confront it with the person, for fear that they will continue to manipulate you. The good news is that you don’t have to face it alone. Meeting with a therapist can help you work on rebuilding trust in yourself, reclaim your reality, and find a path forward.

If, in reading this post, you realized that your partner probably isn’t gaslighting you but that your communication with each other needs work, therapists can help with that too!

At ECC, we’re committed to helping our clients find the right therapist and strategy for building healthy, secure attachments. If you need support with abuse recovery, boundary setting, communication, or conflict resolution, we’re here to help. Book an appointment today to get started.

About ECC:

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for relationships, families, children & teens, and individuals in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.

Practicing Self-Love Around Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day as it is celebrated in modern culture is a chance to celebrate romantic love, yet it can also be a painful reminder if you’re currently single, have recently lost or ended a relationship with a romantic partner, or are processing relationship trauma. Even in a relatively healthy partnership, Valentine’s Day can be fraught with social pressures to demonstrate romantic commitment in certain ways like expensive gifts and romantic dates. It’s all too easy to feel disappointment, grief, or stress around Valentine’s Day, which is why practicing self-love and compassion are important. Here are a few therapy tips for honoring your authentic needs and values around Valentine’s Day.

What Do Your Feelings Tell You About Your Needs, Values, and Beliefs

First, let’s do a little check in: how are you feeling about the upcoming Valentine’s Day? Are you dreading it, excited about it? Annoyed by it? Stressed or anxious about it? Our feelings and expectations about holidays like Valentine’s Day are often signs of deeper issues that we need to address, from misguided beliefs to unmet needs.

For example, if you’re single and dreading the holiday, perhaps you’re struggling with what you believe your relationship status says about your worth (e.g., I’m alone because I’m unlovable). Or perhaps you’re in a relationship, but you’re feeling anxious about whether you can fulfill your partner’s expectations for a romantic evening (i.e., if I don’t come up with an extravagant gift, she’ll dump me) or the opposite (i.e., if he doesn’t make plans to celebrate with me, is it a sign that he doesn’t love me?) These fears are often signals of unmet needs or mismatched expectations about how you can express love and care for each other.

It’s important to take time to reflect on your feelings and expectations, and try to dig down to the thing beneath the thing—what are my feelings telling me about my beliefs, needs and values about this holiday?—and acknowledge those deeper issues with compassion, curiosity, and a commitment to honoring your needs.

Self-Love Practices for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, like any holiday, comes with its share of social pressures that may have more of a negative impact than a positive one. Whether you’re single or partnered, it’s important for your mental health to practice self-love. Your relationship to yourself is the most important one you have, after all. Here are a few self-love practices that can help you stay emotionally grounded around Valentine’s Day.

• Take time to love yourself with a little self-care. Be generous and kind to yourself, in whatever way you’re able - it could be taking a solo hike, scheduling a massage, or making time to do a creative activity that you don’t usually have time for. Whatever you choose, the goal is to nurture your mental and physical well-being.

• Practice gratitude and appreciation, both for the relationships that are meaningful to you (romantic or not) and for yourself. Although we often go through our days with a fleeting sense of gratitude in the moment, we can make space to practice gratitude intentionally; for example, you could write down a list of relationships in your life and the qualities within those relationships you’re grateful for. You can also practice gratitude for yourself by engaging in a loving kindness meditation, like this one from Tara Brach.

• Set healthy boundaries in your relationships. Now is a good time to take stock of your relationships (every kind) and check in with yourself about how you want to be treated, and how you want to treat others. If things between you and another person are feeling out of sorts, follow these steps for setting healthy boundaries.

• Ask for what you need from friends, partners, or family. Similar to setting healthy boundaries, being clear about your needs with your loved ones is a way to honor yourself and improve your relationship to others at the same time. For example, if you’re feeling grief this Valentine’s Day over a loss or a breakup, be honest about your feelings and ask for support.

• Build community connections. There are many types of love to celebrate, and there are many people who need love but are not romantically partnered. Modern western culture places much more emphasis on monogamous romantic partnerships than it used to, often at the expense of communal connections. Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to lend your time and attention to community activities that build loving connection in non-romantic ways, like volunteering your time at a senior living facility, shelter for the unhoused, or a hospital ward.

Mental Health Support Around Valentine’s Day

Self-love is the work of a lifetime. Everyone struggles to be kind to themselves and improve their mental health; it’s important to know that you’re not alone. Meeting with a therapist can help you connect with your emotions, clarify your needs, and revise the story you tell yourself about your life, your relationships, and your ability to connect with others.

At Empowered Connections Counseling in Chicago, our group of multidisciplinary therapists provide mental health support for individuals and relationships of diverse backgrounds and experiences: whether you’re single, healing from heartbreak or loss of a partner, recovering from intimate partner violence or betrayal, or you and your partner(s) are straight, LGBTQIA+, monogamous or polyamorous. We’re committed to helping you find the right therapist and strategy to strengthen your mental health, self-esteem, and relationship bonds. Book an appointment today to get started.

About ECC:

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for adults, children & teens, relationships, and families in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.

Do You & Your Partner(s) Need Relationship Therapy?

February and Valentine’s Day focus our collective attention on romantic love. Gifts, quality time with romantic dates or getaways, and public declarations of commitment are the most common expressions of romance we see in modern culture around Valentine’s Day, and they’re all wonderful ways to shower your partner(s) with love and affection. Yet at the same time, they can also be distractions or band-aids for relationship issues that need attention and work. If you’re looking for a deeper connection with your partner(s) this Valentine’s Day, there are some therapy approaches that might be right for you.

Signs That You & Your Partner(s) Might Need Relationship Therapy

Just like with individual therapy, the social stigma around relationship therapy can prevent partners from seeking much-needed external support, and even more so for romantic partners who don’t conform to hetero monogamous relationships. Does going to therapy mean there’s something wrong with our relationship? Are we doomed to fail? These are understandable questions, given the social stigma around therapy. At Empowered Connections Counseling, we believe that pursuing relationship therapy is actually a really good sign: it means that one or more of you are invested in the health of the relationship. It means you’re willing to put in work, make yourself vulnerable, have tough conversations, and grow together so that your relationship has a better chance at surviving, maybe even thriving.

No romantic relationship is perfect, because humans aren’t perfect. Humans bring a whole history of pain and sensitivity to relationships that can lead to conflict and misunderstandings. Here are some of the most common reasons that romantic partners seek therapy together:

• Lack of intimacy - It’s common for intimacy (emotional and sexual) to ebb and flow in relationships over time. But if the ebb of intimacy between you and your partners seems to be more pronounced right now, i.e., you’re having trouble connecting with each other, you’re not feeling seen and heard, it’s hard to initiate connection with them and they’re not initiating anything with you, then therapy might help.

• Communication issues – Frequent/recurring arguments and unresolved conflict can build resentment and avoidance between partners. Every relationship has sensitive areas (money issues, family conflict, annoying habits), but if you feel like you’re afraid to bring up certain topics to your partner(s), a licensed therapist can help you unpack the issues and find new ways of communicating to better understand each other.

• Big life transitions or shared trauma – It could be new parenthood, a move to a new location, money or job stress, shifts in gender and sexual identity, or something more painful, such as infertility or child loss. Regardless of the issue, all relationships face awkward or painful chapters in which it becomes more difficult to know how to support one another. Especially when it comes to loss, when each partner is dealing with their own grief, therapy can help you find ways to connect and bond so that you feel less alone.

• Broken trust – Betrayal happens, but it doesn’t have to lead to an explosive ending. It could be a beginning of newfound honesty. Whether it’s an affair, a painful lie, or another type of betrayal, a licensed therapist can help you and your partner(s) come together to unpack the broken trust between you, examine what it means for your relationship, set healthy boundaries, and find ways to communicate about your needs in honest ways.

• Unsolvable problems - According to Dr. John Gottman’s research, 69% of problems that relationships face are actually perpetual or “unsolvable problems,” such as personality or character traits. Therapy can help you and your partner(s) name the problem, get curious about each other, and find a new path forward together.

It is also healthy and normal to go to therapy together when your relationship seems fine! You don’t need to wait for a glaring red flag or a dramatic falling apart to seek support from a therapist — in fact, it’s better if you don’t wait. Plenty of romantic partners go to relationship therapy so that they can prioritize healthy communication and process life’s ups and downs together in a more intentional way.

The Best Types of Therapy to Improve Your Romantic Relationship(s)

Relationship therapy can significantly increase intimacy, satisfaction, and strengthen connection. It can also provide an opportunity to repair when there has been wounding in our important relationships. At ECC, our diverse group of licensed counselors and therapists practice several types of research-backed therapy modalities. Our goal is always to help our clients find the right therapist and approach that best suits their needs. Here are a couple of beneficial therapy frameworks our practice uses to help romantic partners form healthier bonds.

Attachment-Based Therapy

Attachment-based therapy is a trauma-informed and process-oriented therapeutic method that helps clients identify attachment wounds and repair relationships. In attachment-based therapy, a therapist will talk with you to help you understand the four attachment styles, and then lead exercises to help you identify your attachment style, identify deeper attachment wounds, and build more secure attachments with your partner(s). (Learn more about attachment-based therapy and its benefits.)

Emotionally Focused Therapy

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a therapeutic approach that helps clients connect their emotions with their underlying needs, identify negative patterns, and try new ways of connecting with others. Developed by Canadian Psychologist Sue Johnson in the 1980s, EFT is a type of attachment-based therapy that was primarily developed for couples. It is distinct from other therapy methods in its core premise that our emotions are a signal of an unmet need or insecure attachment within a relationship. EFT is beneficial for relationships because it provides a structure for identifying and addressing layers of emotions, empowering individuals to connect more deeply with their authentic feelings and learn to communicate them honestly in their relationships. (Learn more about EFT therapy and its unique benefits.)

Relationship Counseling and Therapy Near You

Romantic love can be one of the great joys of life. It can be an incredible source of meaning, connection, personal and collective growth. And it can be a source of deep pain, fear, and grief. It is human nature to bring significant expectations to our romantic partnerships, all the more so in our modern, western culture that has made romantic partnership the pinnacle marker of adulthood. Every relationship deserves support and can benefit from therapy, where each partner has the opportunity to voice their needs, fears, expectations, grief, and hope.

At Empowered Connections Counseling in Chicago, our therapists support all types of romantic relationships—straight, LGBTQIA+, monogamous, polyamorous, partnered, married, divorced—as well as individuals who are single, healing from heartbreak or loss of a partner, or recovering from intimate partner violence or betrayal. Together, we can help you find the right therapist and therapy approach to forge healthy, meaningful connections in your life. Reach out today to book a session.

About ECC:

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for adults, children & teens, relationships, and families in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.

Am I Doing Boundaries Right in My Relationships?

Boundaries have become a frequent topic of conversation both within therapy and outside of it: on social media, in the workplace, between family members, between friends. It’s important to create clarity in a relationship about how you want to be treated, and how you want to treat others. But it’s hard work to set healthy, effective boundaries in your relationships, especially if you grew up in a family or a culture where your needs weren’t considered, or you watched a parent or caregiver navigate life without setting healthy boundaries for themselves—with you, with another adult or family member, or maybe even their job. 

It’s especially hard to set boundaries when you’re holding misconceptions about what boundaries are in a relationship and how they work. 

The Biggest Misconception About Setting Relationship Boundaries

The biggest misconception I see in my therapy practice is the belief that boundaries are a way of controlling how other people act towards you. The truth is, you can’t control other peoples’ behavior. 

For example, if you were to tell your parent or partner, “Hey, I need you to stop talking to me that way,” chances are that they will continue to speak to you the way in which  they always have, and the outcome of hurtful behavior and hurt feelings won’t change. 

But if you were to say to them, “When you talk to me in this way, it really hurts my feelings. If you continue to talk to me that way in the future, I’m going to end the conversation and I’ll follow up with you when I’m ready to talk” — that is a real boundary that focuses on what you are able to control: your own behavior. It sets a clear expectation with the other person about how you will respond and gives them a clear choice to continue their behavior, or change. 

Boundaries are about how you respond to others, not how you control others. 

Tips for Setting Good Boundaries: 

If you want to create healthy boundaries in your relationships, there are three key steps: 

1. First, get clear with yourself on your feelings, the boundaries you need to set, and when/how to communicate them. It may help to ask yourself questions and journal your responses, or talk through it with a therapist: 

• Connect with your feelings: When they say or do [X behavior], how does it make you feel? Why?

• Choose your response: What actions (on your part) feel reasonable in response to their behavior? Are you hanging up the phone, sending a short text explaining that you’re not going to continue the conversation, or leaving their presence if you’re face-to-face? 

• Set a timeline: are you going to wait until they say or do the hurtful behavior again for you to address it, or are you going to bring it up proactively so that hopefully, it doesn’t happen again?

2. Communicate your feelings. The other person needs to know how their behavior makes you feel so they can understand why the boundary is being set.

3. Communicate your boundary. In other words, set clear expectations with the other person about what you're going to do differently in response to the hurtful behavior if it continues. Clear boundaries can best be framed as an “If / then” statement, e.g., “If you continue to speak to me this way, then I will have to end the conversation and take some space until I’m ready to talk.” 

4. Follow through with the boundary. Respond how you said you would, even if it’s painful. When we don’t follow through on our boundaries, people won’t take them seriously. 

Why is Following Through on Boundaries So Hard? 

The good and bad news about relationship boundaries is that we have the agency to change our relationships—and our lives—when we set them. It can be emotionally painful to take that step and follow through with hanging up the phone and going a period of time without contacting someone, especially someone close to you. Maybe that’s why so many of us wish boundaries were about controlling the other person’s behavior: because then we’re off the hook to make a painful choice and change the dynamic. But that mindset only leads to frustration and resentment. 

When we choose to set healthy boundaries we’re opening ourselves up to the possibility of healthy relationships in the future—not only in the relationship we’re setting this boundary for right now, but for other relationships as well. Every time we set the boundary and follow through, we’re establishing our agency and building the emotional resilience to keep choosing healthy boundaries in the future.

Do You Need Help Setting Healthy Boundaries? 

If you’re struggling to set and maintain healthy boundaries in your relationships, you’re not alone. Meeting with a therapist can help you connect with your emotions, clarify your needs, and build the emotional strength to make meaningful change in your life. There are many different therapy methodologies that might help with boundary setting, such as relational therapy, Dialectical behavior therapy, Acceptance and commitment therapy, and others. 

At ECC, we’re committed to helping our clients find the right therapist and strategy for building healthy connections. If you need help with boundary setting, communication, or conflict resolution, we’re here to help. Book an appointment today to get started. 

About ECC: 

Empowered Connections Counseling is a practice of licensed therapists providing quality, multidisciplinary counseling for adults, children & teens, relationships, and families in Chicago and across Illinois. Whether by in-person session or via telehealth, we work with clients to find the therapist and treatment methods that best suit their needs. Connect meaningfully with your life by booking an appointment today.