OK so you've had a fight with your partner.

Not to make you feel un-special here, but disagreements with our partners when we're in long term meaningful relationships, are a bit of a given…

What is less common is couples who can repair like pros.

January is a time when people are typically focused on setting goals and creating positive change in many areas of their life. With that in mind, it feels like a good time to share some helpful steps you can use to set up some systems that will support you to work towards creating the relationship experience or dynamic you would like in 2023.

It's easiest to slip into reacting mode when we're stressed, have depleted our physiological resources (i.e. haven't had enough sleep or are hangry) or emotionally dis-regulated.

If you're thinking I just described the adjustment to parenting and well any challenging relationship stage, well yes, yes I just did.

I'm going to go ahead and say – of course it is.

Experiencing temporary disconnect is very normal even in the healthiest of relationships. It's certainly not a relationship death sentence or something to start over analysing at 1am in the morning.

When two people view themselves as a team, they start to act like a team.

Good team members look after each other, they want each other to succeed, they view each other's failures with empathy and problem solve together.

The key is not to not have arguments but to argue well.

Huh, you may be thinking, that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one! Let me demystify it for you into some simple overarching principles that I find handy to remember...

It gets a bad rep but conflict in a relationship is as valuable a force as it is inevitable.