Irina Zhuravleva

To be honest, I’m embarrassed when I look back at the times people treated me badly and, instead of removing myself from the situation, I...

Let’s be honest for a moment: being rejected hurts. It bites. Whether it’s a job you wanted, a friendship, or a relationship you invested in,...

May I offer a piece of advice? Don’t allow tenderness to fade from your partnership; don’t let romance fall by the wayside. You often don’t...

If adults you relied on betrayed you as a child, your sense of self-worth and personal boundaries can be so damaged that you become blind...

It’s heartbreaking when caregivers overlook a child whose need for affection, attention and safety is as vital as eating, breathing and drinking. If you grew...

You’ve endured enough silence in your life, haven’t you? That heavy, unsettling quiet that follows their disappearance — the rooms that still seem to echo...

Okay, correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like when you constantly go out of your way for a partner who never returns the...

When I first began teaching about trauma, I never imagined that one of the most persistent, defining consequences of childhood abuse and neglect would also...

The early phase of a romantic relationship—especially after a long period of solitude or when you fear you may never be truly loved—can feel all-consuming....

The paradox of emotional unavailability is that you can close yourself off so completely that you lose the awareness that you’re shut down in the...

Doesn’t it often feel like men retreat to “I don’t know” as a default answer? A friend was describing the most recent argument he had...

Some people insist that cancel culture is a myth or even a necessary corrective, and curiously those voices are often the same ones who have...

The strangest paradox of avoidant attachment is this: the very behaviors that pushed them away are often what they will exhibit once you stop striving...

People who genuinely love you and care about your wellbeing will pay attention to what you require from the relationship in order to feel safe,...

You’ve tried everything to keep them close, haven’t you? You send the first messages. You forgive without insisting on explanations. You tuck away your own...

“Productivity crash” is a phrase I coined to describe a recurring pattern I witness frequently: people who survived childhood trauma can achieve extraordinary feats—performing almost...

Have you ever gone quiet with someone and found yourself obsessing over what’s running through their mind? I’m talking about the person you’re seeing —...

You can sense him pulling back. It starts small: texts that once arrived quickly now take hours; plans that used to be made now evaporate...

Can we start practicing a simple rule: if you feel something, say it? Men, in particular, often struggle with this — acting as if our...

there is a powerful link between childhood abuse and neglect—especially emotional neglect—and a recurring, painful pattern in adulthood of investing all your affection into an...

When parents are so wrapped up in themselves that they barely notice or truly know their children, it’s common for those children to grow up...

Why is it that even when you pitch in around the house she still seems unappreciative? That’s an important question and there are several possible...

Everyone seems to be using the word dysregulation these days—but what does it actually refer to? And what can you do when it happens to...

What might happen if we invited people into a lab and asked them to write about a painful event they had never fully talked through...