"You're not just grieving a person, you're also grieving the potential of the relationship," says Lisa Chen, LMFT. She explains why the unpredictability of an undefined connection can make a situationship feel more addictive than a relationship, and harder to leave.

"Puffer-fishing' is essentially emotional self-protection masked as avoidance," says Lisa Chen, LMFT. She observes this pattern in avoidantly attached clients and emphasizes that "real intimacy isn't destroyed by vulnerability, but defenses against vulnerability."

"Being in a committed relationship, yet still being involved in other women's accounts or liking their stories, is something that's brought up often," says Lisa Chen, LMFT, a couples therapist based in California. She notes that such actions can constitute emotional betrayal and undermine relationship trust.

Why Thursday carries weekend energy without the weight of expectation, why Monday is the worst choice, and how the day of the week shapes a new connection.

Why audiences are tuning out relationship drama shared online without resolution, and what that says about emotional labor and voyeurism.

Small, deliberate shifts in language that signal safety rather than threat, and why the words we reach for under stress matter most.

In Germany's leading national newspaper, Lisa Chen, LMFT on holding firm conversational limits over the holidays without rupturing the relationships underneath.

Why agreements that look reasonable on paper collapse under unspoken expectations, and what successful couples build in from the start.

How some portrayals of obsessive longing blur the line between passion and unhealthy attachment, and what parents should know.

How reframing a breakup as a natural transition rather than a failure eases grief and makes room for real closure.

When dating several people at once supports deliberate choices, and when it becomes a way to avoid the vulnerability intimacy requires.

How political polarization is reshaping dating, and why emotional safety and shared values have become non-negotiable.