Coaching practices for Why Am I So Insecure in My Relationship

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Why Am I So Insecure in My Relationship, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • My partner sided with their family over me again, or didn’t back me up in front of others, and I’m left unsure whether they’ll actually put us first when it counts
  • I figure my partner just knows I’m in this and committed, so I almost never actually say it out loud anymore
  • I keep hitting the exact insecurity my partner is most ashamed of
  • I’ve been waiting for my partner to change first so I can finally feel safe, and I’m exhausted from outsourcing my whole sense of okay to whether they reach for me
  • I keep waiting to feel safe enough in this relationship before I let my guard down, and it never comes

Practices that may help

  1. Create and protect the couple bubble
    Agree that you each put the relationship above any third party, including family of origin.
    Secure-Functioning Relationships
  2. Give regular assurances of commitment
    Explicitly remind your partner of your love, commitment, and investment in the relationship.
    Relationship Maintenance Behaviors
  3. Avoiding anti-ideal confirmation: the sculpting that harms
    Identify the ways you routinely treat your partner as their non-ideal (worst) self, and stop.
    The Michelangelo Phenomenon: How Partners Sculpt Each Other
  4. Move toward a secure baseline -- in yourself first
    Security is a state you can practice moving toward, regardless of which partner moves first.
    The Anxious-Avoidant Trap: Why Opposites Attract and Then Struggle
  5. Build secure-functioning habits
    Practice the behaviors of secure attachment — reliability, responsiveness, repair — on purpose.
    Attachment Theory, Made Usable
  6. Moving from other-validation to self-validation
    Gradually replace the need for your partner’s approval with the ability to hold your own self-regard.
    Differentiation of Self: David Schnarch’s Framework for Passionate Marriage
  7. Choose and co-create secure relationships
    Move toward partners and dynamics that reward openness, and build security together.
    Attachment Theory, Made Usable
  8. Behavioral confirmation audit: how are you treating your partner?
    Regularly examine whether your daily behavior toward your partner confirms their ideal self or their non-ideal self.
    The Michelangelo Phenomenon: How Partners Sculpt Each Other
  9. Share your own inner world to build the map reciprocally
    Let your partner map you -- disclose what is actually on your mind, not just the surface.
    Love Maps: Knowing Your Partner's Inner World
  10. Explore each other’s life dreams
    Ask what your partner’s cherished goals and aspirations are — not just their plans.
    The Shared Meaning System

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