Toxic Friendships

This book is intended as a kind of field guide to ‘toxic’ relationships of various kinds, but especially friendships among women. . . .Degges-White is a therapist as well as a professor of counseling. She has had many years of experience helping women who are trying to understand and/or extricate themselves from damaging relationships. Van Tieghem is a professional freelance writer. The authors first lay out why people need relationships and then propose ten ‘cross-cultural’ rules for maintaining healthy adult relationships and ten rules for parents who must help their children successfully navigate their own worlds of friendship. Basing their suggestions and conclusions on ‘shared stories of composite clients’ and other women contacted via a survey, the authors then take readers on a guided tour of familiar environments that are particularly prone to being toxic (e.g., the soccer field). In the last section of the book, the authors offer advice on how to gracefully bail out of a toxic relationship and how to use the rules of relationships to build healthy friendships while keeping one's integrity and sense of self intact. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. * Choice Reviews *
Toxic Friendships: Knowing the Rules and Dealing with the Friends Who Break Them is a comprehensive, detailed and personal guidebook for tackling problematic friendships, helping us learn how to become better friends and just why it's so crucial that we do so. -- Andrea Bonior, Ph.D., www.thefriendshipfix.com
In their enormously helpful and nuanced book, Toxic Friendships, Suzanne Degges-White and Judy Pochel Van Tieghem go way beyond "mean girl" and "frenemy" stereotypes to elucidate the unspoken rules of friendship and lay out how we can effectively manage the inevitable hurt and disappointment that comes with vitally important social connections. The authors' exploration of potentially toxic friendship environments, such as the office and children's athletic teams, further enriches the reader's understanding of friendship's many complications. -- Carlin Flora, author of Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are
As a professional who works with friends and knows the value of friendships to my mental health, I have experienced the pain of mending and ending friendships. I wish I read Toxic Friendships years ago so I could have better navigated these relationships for both my sanity and success. This book is a must read for women regardless of age and stage of life. -- Marcia Reynolds, PsyD, author of Wander Woman and The Discomfort Zone: How Leaders Turn Difficult Conversations into Breakthroughs