Rhonda Rabow Psychotherapist

B.A., F.L.E., M.A.
Bringing 20 years of counselling experience.

How do you measure a healthy relationship?

Love and Marriage 3 Secrets for Living Happily Ever After A new e-book by Rhonda Rabow M.A. Click Here

The challenge is how does one measure a healthy relationship? What is a reasonable expectation and what is asking too much?  It doesn’t mean that you never argue, or are never angry or disappointed with each other.  It doesn’t mean that you are always in love and always happy.  If you expect perfection, you will always be disappointed.  On the other hand, there are behaviours that can be forgiven and there are those that are just not acceptable.

How do you know which is which?  That is what I am here to help you decide.
A healthy relationship is one where:

1. You feel safe with your partner. You know it is ok to make mistakes and still feel accepted and forgiven.
2. You need to see your partner as a good friend. You like him/her as a person and feel encouraged and supported by him.her.
3. You need to be able to disagree with each other, yet still feel heard and understood
4. You need to feel that you are being treated with respect and are valued.
5. You need to feel your partner is committed to doing whatever it takes to make the relationship work
6. There should never be threats to leave, abandon or reject one another. 
7. There needs to be a willingness to look at the other’s persons point of view
8. There needs to be an atmosphere of cooperation, trust and caring.
9. When mistakes are made, you need to feel that it will be forgiven and not used against you in the next argument.
10. You need to have deep, loving feelings for your partner most of the time.
11. You need to have fun together.  When is the last time you laughed together?
12. In a healthy relationship, you bring out the best in each other.
13. You can ask for what you want without feeling guilty or selfish.

How does YOUR relationship measure up?  Is it time to work on making some improvements?  If so, please visit my website at www.rhondarabow.com, read the FREE excerpt from my e-book and decide if your relationship is worth an investment of $15.00 and an hour of your time to read the entire e-book.

For more information, please contact: Rhonda Rabow, M.A.

(514) 626-4609

Visit Rhonda's other Web site, www.rhondarabow.com to submit a free question, subscribe to her newsletter or read even more articles and get FREE STUFF.

© 2008 Rhonda Rabow www.helphelpmerhonda.ca