Not every relationship is worth preserving. For those relationships you want to maintain or improve, The ‘GIVE’ skills from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) help you do just that.

G — (Be) Gentle. One part of being gentle is to avoid being attacking or threatening in your communication. These types of actions are likely to put others on the defensive and to have a destructive effect on the relationship. This skill is important to use especially when the other person doesn’t do something you’d like them to do. It can be tempting to use anger or threats to change their mind, but this will not help you accomplish your goal of maintaining the relationship. Instead, be willing to take “no” for an answer.

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