Friendship Development

In Episodes, lifelong best friends Kat and Mara take listeners on an unfiltered journey through friendship, mental illness, and survival. Kat, a successful professional, is preparing for marriage and motherhood. On her fourth round of IVF, it happened—a frantic call to Mara. Mara comes over to find Kat, her friend of 25 years—the one who'd always been levelheaded, hilarious, and over-the-top thoughtful—trying to jump through a window.

Have you recently moved to a new city and are struggling to make friends? Do you find yourself constantly making plans with friends that fall through? Are you more likely to see your friends' social media posts than their faces? You aren't alone. Millions of adults struggle with an uncomfortable and persistent ache: platonic longing, which is the unfulfilled wish for authentic, resilient, close friendships.

Good friends and healthy friendships are crucial to women's well-being at every stage of life. But what happens when a friendship turns toxic? When a friend becomes hurtful or mistreats another? When a friend abandons another in a time of need? Here, Suzanne Degges-White and Judy Pochel Van Tieghem explore such toxic friendships and how women navigate the ups and downs as well as how broken friendships can be mended and bad friendships ended.

In teenagers, powerful emotions come with the territory. And with so many of today’s teens contending with academic pressure, social media stress, worries about the future, and concerns about their own mental health, it’s easy for them—and their parents—to feel anxious and overwhelmed. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With clear, research-informed explanations alongside illuminating, real-life examples, The Emotional Lives of Teenagers gives parents the information they need to steady their teens through the bumpy yet transformational journey into adulthood.

Grounded in the Buddha’s teachings on spiritual friendship, Radical Friendship shares seven strategies to help us embody our deepest values in all of our relationships. Drawing on her experiences as a leading meditation teacher, as well as personal stories of growing up multiracial in a racist world, Kate Johnson brings a fresh take on time-honored wisdom to help us connect more authentically with ourselves, with our friends and family, and within our communities.

When Ned meets governess Phoebe Baker, he becomes intent on gaining her affections. Phoebe wants nothing more than to keep her head down, teach her students, and go unnoticed-especially by the Earl of Ashby. But his rakish secretary has the infuriating habit of constantly crossing her path. Yet Phoebe cannot deny that her pulse quickens in Ned's presence. If this prim-and-proper governess lets her heart rule, will fate intervene where Ned's luck has forsaken him?

"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend," Proverbs 27:17 tells us. God uses Christian friendships to help His children grow in grace and stay true to Christ. But our 21st century Western culture values individualism, busyness, and selfishness qualities that do not encourage deep, long-lasting, satisfying friendships.

Our culture today is inundated with narratives about the strength of female friendship, whether through images of girl power, BFFs, or work wives. Yet cultural historian Tiffany Watt Smith has always found her own life much messier. She has had dramatic friend breakups, friendships that felt like too much or not enough, friendships that drifted into silence, and friendships built on convenience rather than a meeting of minds. And there are older cultural scripts to contend with: the competitive rival, the jealous backstabber, the underminer, the fair-weather friend.

You might be looking for your perfect partner or want to restore a marriage, improve your relationships with your work colleagues, renew relationships with family or friends, or find new friends. In The Secret to Relationships Masterclass Rhonda presents many inspiring examples of real-life cases from people who have used The Secret to achieve all of this and much, much more.

In Made for People—by bestselling author of The Habits of the Household—Justin Whitmel Earley explains why God made us to experience deep friendship and how we can cultivate them despite a culture of busyness, disconnection, and fear of vulnerability. Through personal stories, research, and biblical wisdom, Justin paints of a picture of God's design for "covenant friendships."

How to Have Meaningful Relationships is an essential guide for anyone who wants to build healthy, happy and sustainable relationships with the people in their lives. Relationships skills are not innate, they are skills to be learned. This guide provides useful tools, ideas and checklists to help you become the very best team player you can be. By the end of this book you will have all the tools you need to live a life of extraordinary relationships, deep fulfilment, intimacy, connection and meaning.

The author of Bel Canto, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, and long-running New York Times best seller, turns to nonfiction in a moving chronicle of her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy.

Sometimes it can seem as if friends are more work and pain than they're worth, with friendship challenges that we have to endure and struggle through. Life gets in the way of our well-intentioned efforts to connect. Conflicts and differences over serious issues divide us and make us think that we could never be close to a person ever again. How can we build real relationships that are life giving and pass the test of time? Bryan Loritts mines one of the Bible's least-known books for insights into how friendships can flourish even in the midst of sin and brokenness.

In a world that often feels more connected yet increasingly isolated, true friendships can feel hard to find. Mastering Friendship is your guide to cultivating meaningful connections and creating the tribe that lifts you up. Whether you're looking to build new friendships, strengthen existing ones, or shift your mindset to embrace connection, this book gives you the practical tools and insights to make it happen.

In Think Pretty, respected businesswoman and mother of five Callie C. Steuer, whose enthusiasm, stick-to-itiveness, and cheerful optimism are notable, shares relatable stories from her life and the lives of her friends and the women in her family who are exemplars of the power of Pretty Sisterhood.

For many, friends now play the role of family, but often our friendships don't turn out quite as we envisioned or hoped. Bible teacher Kelly Needham debunks our world's constricted, small view of friendship and casts a richer, more life-giving, biblical vision for friendship. In Friend-ish, Kelly Needham takes a close look at what scripture says about friendship. She reveals the distorted view most of us have of it and recasts a glorious vision for a Christian understanding.

What Remains begins with loss and returns to loss. A small plane plunges into the ocean, carrying John Kennedy, Anthony's cousin, and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Carole's closest friend. Three weeks later Anthony dies of cancer. The summer of the plane crash, the four friends were meant to be cherishing Anthony's last days. Instead, Carole and Anthony mourned John and Carolyn, even as Carole planned her husband's memorial.

Written in the same comedic style as the New York Times best sellers Sparkly Green Earrings and The Antelope in the Living Room, Nobody's Cuter Than You is a laugh-out-loud look at the special bond that exists between friends and a poignant celebration of all the extraordinary people God had the good sense to bring into our lives at exactly the right moments.

Break free from the chains of avoidant-dismissive attachment and heal emotional distance! Are you yearning to connect with others in a meaningful way, yet constantly stumble upon a wall of emotional detachment you can't seem to overcome? If this strikes a chord, guess what? You are far from alone. Individuals with an avoidant-dismissive attachment style or those grappling with intimacy frequently grapple with these doubts. But it doesn't have to be this way. Often, individuals with an avoidant-dismissive attachment style feel misunderstood or isolated.

We are lonelier than ever. The average American hasn't made a new friend in the last five years. Research has shown that people with close friends are happier, healthier, and live longer than people who lack strong social bonds. But why - when we are seemingly more connected than ever before - can it feel so difficult to keep those bonds alive and well? Why do we spend only four percent of our time with friends? In this warm, inspiring guide, Adam "Smiley" Poswolsky proposes a new solution for the mounting pressures of modern life: Focus on your friendships.