We’re excited to share that Business Insider and INSIDER featured Tribeca Therapy as relationship experts in two recent articles. Drawing on our couples therapy practice, and work with relationships more generally, Business Insider asked both our Founder and Clinical Director Matt and Senior Therapist Kelly for book recommendations on relationships. Likewise, Insider encouraged Kelly to explore the useful relationship lessons that can be gathered from the TV show Gossip Girl.
The first article “The 5 Books That Relationship Therapists Think Everyone Should Read” offered some reading recommendations courtesy of Tribeca Therapy. This includes Matt’s recommended pick Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish’s How To Talk So Your Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. While it might seem like an unusual recommendation for couples, the book is the best available set of instructions for having meaningful conversations where the work is being done to really make the other person feel heard. As Matt says, “These are basic rules for making someone feel heard and communicating when someone is upset.”
Kelly’s book choice The 5 Love Languages: The Secret To Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman is also related to being open and curious about how to meet a partner’s needs. We all have different experiences that influence how we interpret love, caring and affection. Kelly recommends the book less for the organization of the five “love languages,” but more because it’s built on the premise that our experience is our reality, and our partner needs to care about that and take it seriously.
In Insider’s “8 relationship lessons you can learn from ‘Gossip Girl’, according to a therapist,” Kelly observes the practical advice viewers can learn from The CW show, particularly from its frequently dysfunctional relationships. These tips include the danger of playing games with a partner or potential partner like Chuck and Blair on the show. As Kelly notes, “Manipulation and coercion are the enemies of true intimacy.” She also discusses how to approach the transition from a friend into a romantic relationship, which she says, “requires open communication, flexibility and confidence.”