Couples today are navigating expectations no previous generation had: two-working-parent households, emotional labor, trauma awareness, shifting gender roles, and attachment needs. No one taught us how to do this. But you can learn.

From the perspective of a trauma-informed couples therapist, Lily Allen’s West End Girl reveals how addiction, codependency, and attachment trauma intertwine in relationships — and how healing anxious and avoidant patterns is possible through deep attachment repair, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the Gottman Method, and Internal Family Systems (IFS).

Every relationship moves through seasons. Some are full of light and effortless connection; others feel heavier, confusing, or even lonely. Understanding these four core relationship phases—Honeymoon, Realization, Tension, and Acceptance—helps couples normalize the ups and downs and intentionally move toward a deeper, more grounded love.

Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters isn’t just a fantasy about idols and demons—it’s a viral allegory for mental health, trauma healing, and shame recovery. Through Rumi’s hidden “patterns” and Jinu’s struggle between grandiosity and guilt, the film mirrors real-world psychology: how avoidance feeds anxiety, how connection transforms pain, and how music becomes medicine for the nervous system. Drawing on current research in depression, anxiety, and men’s mental health, LMFT Daniell