Emotional Avoidance: How Running Away Makes Anxiety Worse
Anxiety is an unpleasant emotion, and the natural reaction is to move away from it. Learn how emotional avoidance feeds anxiety and how CBT breaks the cycle.
Read the article →Blog — Psychology and CBT
Articles on relationship psychology, CBT, well-being and personal development.
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Historical FiguresMichael Jackson: How Abandonment Shaped His LifeRead →PsychologyThe Complete List of Human Emotions (Plutchik's Wheel)Read →BreakupDoes No Contact Really Work? What Science Says (2026)Read →Historical FiguresMarilyn Monroe: Unpacking Her Hidden Trauma & LegacyRead →Historical FiguresPablo Escobar: The Psychology of a Megalomaniac Between Terror and CharityRead →PsychologyMonster Romance: Why We're Drawn to Non-Human LoveRead →
Guides21 complete guides▼
- CoupleWhy You're Not Hearing Each Other: 5 Ways to Improve
- BreakupHow to Survive a Breakup: 7 Steps to Heal & Move On
- ManipulationMind Games: 7 Ways to Spot & Stop the Manipulation
- AttachmentAttachment Styles: How Childhood Shapes Adult Love
- Emotional DependencyEmotional Dependency: 5 Steps to Overcome Feeling Empty
- CBT & TherapyAnxiety Spiral: 5 CBT Ways to Break Free & Regain Calm
- DatingStop Swiping: 7 Ways to Connect Authentically in Modern Dating
- Jealousy & InfidelitySurviving Infidelity: 7 Steps to Rebuild Trust After It
- Self-esteemStop Hating Yourself: 5 Steps to Real Self-Worth
- FamilyThe Absent Dad Effect: Why You Struggle and How to Heal
- Absent MotherAbsent Mother: Complete Psychological Guide — Consequences & Recovery
- CBT & TherapyAbsent Father Wound: How to Heal and Break the Cycle
- AdolescenceThe Teen Brain Explained: A Parent's Guide to Understanding
- CBT & TherapyCBT for Mental Health: Your Practical Guide to Well-being
- ManipulationWork & Mental Health: Your CBT Guide to Thrive
- Trauma & HealingTrauma Healing: Your CBT Guide to Overcome Past Wounds
- FamilyParenting Psychology: Guide to Childhood Challenges & Growth
- Anxiety & StressLife Transitions: Your CBT Guide to Navigating Change
- Historical FiguresThe Psychology of Mafia Bosses: 5 Traits of a Godfather
- CoupleWhy You Love: Understanding Your Deep Relationship Patterns
- CoupleRelationship Tests: What's Really Going On Between You Two
Mental Rumination: Why You Go Round in Circles and How to Stop
You lie down and your mind starts racing, replaying a remark, an awkward talk, a regret. Understand mental rumination and break the loop with five CBT tools.
Read the article →Nonviolent Communication: Turning Conflict into Connection
Most conflicts are not born of irreconcilable differences but of the gap between what we say and what is heard. Learn nonviolent communication, step by step.
Read the article →Pathological Perfectionism: When Excellence Becomes a Prison
Perfectionism has a good reputation. In a society that prizes performance, aiming for excellence seems not only desirable but necessary. Yet there is a line
Read the article →Negative Automatic Thoughts: How to Identify and Restructure Them
Negative automatic thoughts surface without warning and pose as facts. Learn to spot them, name the distortions and restructure them with CBT exercises.
Read the article →Emotional Dependency: How to Regain Your Emotional Autonomy
Emotional dependency is a behavioral and cognitive pattern rooted in early life. Learn how CBT helps you restructure it and regain your autonomy.
Read the article →Chronic procrastination: an anxiety symptom that deserves treatment
Chronic procrastination is rarely laziness. Learn how avoidance feeds anxiety and which three CBT exercises help you break the cycle.
Read the article →Conversation Analysis: Decoding Toxic Relationship Patterns
Every day we exchange hundreds of messages. A single text, a tone in an email, an unanswered message: small details that carry our relationship patterns.
Read the article →Sexual Orientation and Identity: Untangling Confusion and Certainty with CBT
Sexual orientation and gender identity are fundamental parts of who we are, yet many people go through periods of confusion and doubt. CBT can help.
Read the article →Feminine and Masculine Energy: The Quiz That Explores Your Inner Balance
Explore your feminine and masculine energy — receptivity, assertiveness, balance, freedom of expression — present in everyone, with no gender hierarchy.
Read the article →The Four Agreements Quiz: What Don Miguel Ruiz's Framework Changes in Daily Life
Don Miguel Ruiz's four toltec agreements, plus the fifth, explained one by one — impeccable word, not taking things personally, no assumptions — and what a quiz can reveal about your own pattern.
Read the article →Aitana Bonmatí and Women's Football: What Sport Psychology Says
Aitana Bonmatí, Marta, Ada Hegerberg: the mechanisms that separate great football careers don't depend on any characteristic unique to men's football. What the research shows.
Read the article →An 8-Week CBT Protocol for Amateur Footballers: What It Can Really Deliver
Six psychological skills, one notebook, eight weeks. A CBT protocol adapted for amateur football, built for a developing player or the parent supporting them — with no promise of sporting results.
Read the article →Talent Scouting in Football: Why It Gets the Most Interesting Cases Wrong
Scouting measures height, speed and physical maturity — exactly the criteria research finds least reliable for predicting long-term success. What the research actually establishes.
Read the article →Schoenaerts and Hasselbank: Their Son's Birth, Told with Discretion
Matthias Schoenaerts and Zoey Hasselbank are parents to a son. A look at a birth lived with discretion, and at what we choose to say or keep quiet.
Read the article →From Messi to Mbappé: Nobody Could Have Predicted Who'd Make It
Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Zidane, Bonmatí: what psychology actually knows about elite footballers, and why talent scouting keeps getting it wrong.
Read the article →Arz Kiya Hai: What India's Number One Song Reveals About Loving Someone While Doubting You're Enough
Arz Kiya Hai, Anuv Jain's Coke Studio Bharat track and Spotify India's most-streamed song, is built around a lover who admits he's no Ghalib or Faiz — and writes to his beloved anyway. What that admission reveals about self-esteem, self-disclosure, and the courage it takes to say how you feel.
Read the article →Cut From the Team: How Great Players Handle Rejection
Getting cut touches most players, including future professionals. What separates a career that bounces back from one that stalls isn't how much the rejection hurts.
Read the article →Kusha Kapila's Divorce and Co-Parenting Story
Kusha Kapila announced her divorce from Zorawar Ahluwalia in 2023 and committed to co-parenting their daughter, Maya. What her story reveals about divorce and public speculation today.
Read the article →Rein Me In: What Sam Fender's Record-Breaking Song Reveals About Fear of Intimacy
Sam Fender and Olivia Dean's 'Rein Me In' has spent longer at UK number one than any single in chart history. Its lyrics describe someone too afraid of love to let it hold him. What that fear looks like, and why it sabotages the closeness it claims to want.
Read the article →Over 2300 applied psychology articles
The Psychologie et Sérénité blog offers over 2300 articles written by Gildas Garrec, CBT practitioner. Each article is based on validated psychological models (Gottman, Young, attachment theory, CBT) to provide concrete keys to understanding.
Couple communication — Gottman's 4 horsemen, the 5:1 ratio, stonewalling, NVC
Attachment — Anxious, avoidant, disorganized styles, path to secure attachment
Emotional dependency — The 10 signs, self-assessment tests, CBT strategies
Ghosting & dating — Ghosting, breadcrumbing, curving, orbiting, zombieing
Manipulation — Gaslighting, control, narcissistic pervert, psychological violence
Infidelity — Understanding, forgiving, trauma bonding, reconstruction
Anxiety & stress — Relationship anxiety, burnout, rumination, insomnia
Jealousy — Pathological jealousy, retrospective, social media
Breakup & grief — The 7 stages, no contact, relationship PTSD
Couple & cohabitation — Moving in, arguments, libido, mental load
Parenting — Parental alienation, co-parenting, blended family
Young's schemas — 18 early schemas, cognitive distortions
Dating apps — Mental health impact, paradox of choice, dating fatigue
Mental health — When to consult, online therapy, CBT vs EMDR