Thawing Toxic Relationships

Thawing Toxic Relationships is number three of a four part series entitled Thawing the Iceberg. The Thawing the Iceberg Series is designed to address various issues outlined in the author’s bestselling book, Thaw – Freedom from Frozen feelings. The other two books in the Series are: Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome and Thawing Childhood Abandonment Issues.

Thawing Toxic Relationships is a book about healing and co-creating healthy, functional relationships for those who grew up in a dysfunctional family. If you relate to Don Carter’s Iceberg Model, would like to have a genuinely happy and functional relationship then this book is for you! Building healthy relationships, a skill that eludes most people who have been raised in a less-than-nurturing family, is the ultimate objective for Thawing Toxic Relationships.

Read about the Cycle of Drama, the Chemistry of drama how to save your marriage, improve communication, how to set and maintain healthy boundaries, be assertiveness, identify relationship mind games (Distance and Pursuit games, the Punishment Cycle, the Drama Triangle - and why we play them). Gather the tools and skills necessary to overcome these and many other dysfunctional relationship patterns.

Thawing Toxic Relationships - Sample of content

• NOTE: All books in the Thawing the Iceberg Series contain the Iceberg Model in the first five chapters so that they stand-alone as a complete work.

• Chapter 1: "What the hell is wrong with you?" (p.4) Motivation, Dependency Needs, Iceberg Model

• Chapter 2: Anatomy of an Emotional Wound (p.16) Abandonment, Shame, & Contempt - False Self

• Chapter 3: The Art of Survival (p.28) External Focus, Impression Management - Invented Self

• Chapter 4: Who am I Really? (p.36) Imperfect World & Spirituality - True Self

• Chapter 5: Distractions & Dependencies (p.40) Addictions, Obsessions/Compulsions, and Other Issues

Sample of Exercises & Recovery Activities:

• Workbook Introduction: Separateness & Connectedness (p.46) Distance & Pursuit; Ego-State Functioning

• From Section 1.1: Core Issues & Relationships Styles (p.49) Externalizers & Internalizers; Codependents & Counter-Dependents

• From Section 1.2: Exploring Your Developmental Stages (p.54) Assessing the Development of Psychological Positions & Relationship Styles

• From Section 1.3: Infatuation & Identification vs. True Intimacy (p.65) Why we Hurt the Ones we Love: Cycles of Abandonment, Shame, and Contempt

• From Section 1.4: Psychological Sweatshirt's (p.72) Examples of Mixed Messages & Relationship Polarities

• From Section 2.1: Structuring Time & the Three Hungers of the Inner Child (p.76) Structure Hunger, Stimulus Hunger, & Position Hunger

• From Section 2.3: Games We Play (p.86) Complimentary & Crossed Transactions

• From Section 2.3: Distorted Perceptions, Payoffs for Playing Games (p.94) Some Classic Mind Games, Moves, and Payoffs

• From Section 3.3: Are You Living Life in Reaction? (p.110) Friend or Foe? - Treating Each Other Like an Enemy

• From Section 3.7: Key Relationship Skills (p.119) Communication & Ego-State Functioning

• From Section 3.7.6: Analyzing Your Transactions (p.127) Analyzing Communication, Feelings & Emotions