Foreword Reviews
Alicia Muñoz’s Stop Overthinking Your Relationship highlights the problem of relationship rumination—and charts a path toward healthier relationships. The book focuses on how repetitive negative thinking absorbs too much of the energy and attention that a relationship needs to flourish. Muñoz says that this is a common problem in romantic relationships, but one that is not often discussed. She does the powerful work of helping individuals and couples to recognize the issue, as well as to cultivate the attention and compassion needed for change.... Stop Overthinking Your Relationship is a self-help book that gives couples the power to reclaim their relationships from repetitive negative thinking.” —Foreword Reviews
Jillian Pransky
This tender, insightful, and well-written book will help you recognize and break the habit of overthinking—‘the cheapest and most accessible mind-altering substance’ there is. Alicia’s profound practice of SLOW (seeing, labeling, opening, and welcoming) is a concrete tool to help couples reduce their anxiety by helping them understand their internal experiences rather than defending against them. This practice will transform your relationships and your own well-being.”—Jillian Pransky, author of Deep Listening
Livia Kent
Alicia Muñoz is a true artist—in how she sees the nuances of relationships and in how she helps readers address the complexities in simple yet effective ways. It doesn’t hurt that she draws us in with writing that’s at once compassionate, direct, and utterly engaging.”—Livia Kent, MFA, editor in chief of Psychotherapy Networker
Tammy Nelson
Relationship rumination is an unrecognized issue and a major problem in couples therapy, and this book gives a clear map to see a way through. Alicia Muñoz’s SLOW process is easy to follow and makes intimacy an adventure. Everyone contemplating a relationship should read this book, and every therapist trying to help couples out of conflict and into a loving connection needs to know these exercises.”—Tammy Nelson, PhD, TEDx speaker, and author of Open Monogamy
Alexandra H. Solomon
Once again, Alicia Muñoz delivers on her promise to help us bring more care and awareness to our intimate relationships. In Stop Overthinking Your Relationship, she skillfully and wisely unpacks one of the most pervasive, pernicious, and poorly understood problems in relationships—destructive, ruminative, out-of-control thinking. Readers will see themselves on these pages and benefit immensely from her brilliance and generosity.”—Alexandra H. Solomon, PhD, professor and licensed clinical psychologist at Northwestern University, author of Loving Bravely and Taking Sexy Back, and host of the Reimagining Love podcast
Neil Sattin
If you’ve ever experienced the ways that incessant worrying can erode the foundation of a relationship or undermine your self-confidence, then you’ll appreciate Alicia Muñoz’s straightforward guide to slowing down, reconnecting to yourself and others, and finally resolving whatever might be causing your anxious mind to go into overdrive. Those thoughts will become a gift—once you learn how to unwrap them and use what’s inside to reclaim your power.”—Neil Sattin, host of the Relationship Alive podcast
Jennifer Gunsaullus
Many clients struggle with rumination and making up stories about themselves and their partners, which ultimately undermines their relationships and well-being. With many helpful analogies, client examples, and concrete exercises, this is a very accessible handbook to help couples move through these deteriorating patterns. Instead of allowing anxiety and the illusion of control to run relationships, Alicia Muñoz deftly teaches how to build relationships based on choice, clarity, emotional availability, awareness, and teamwork.”—Jennifer Gunsaullus, PhD, sociologist, intimacy coach, international speaker, and author of From Madness to Mindfulness
Harville Hendrix
If you ever feel like you are drowning in the negative cycles of your own thought, this is the book for you. Alicia Muñoz provides a detailed description of this debilitating phenomenon, and an equally detailed description of the process of moving from rumination to engagement and connection. We recommend a careful reading and practice of the liberating processes.”—Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, coauthors of Getting the Love You Want
Gleb Tsipursky
It’s so hard to accept that our thoughts about our partner are often neither true nor helpful. Blending research, practical advice, and case studies, Alicia Muñoz shows how you can deal with these blaming, worrying, doubting, controlling, or self-pitying ruminations. She offers readers practical, inspiring guidance through the SLOW technique and other tools to enable them to reap the benefits of connection, healthy boundaries, and safety in love.”—Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, cutting-edge expert in relationship science; and author of the global best seller, The Blindspots Between Us
Jodi Richardson
Anxiety and overthinking cloud the lens through which we view and experience our relationships, often fueling disconnection and challenges that, left unchecked, become increasingly difficult to overcome. In this book, Alicia Muñoz blends her expertise and vast experience to peel back the curtain on anxious overthinking, illustrate the overt and nuanced ways it affects relationships, and, importantly, she shares tools and practices that reveal a clear path to more understanding, connection, and love.”—Jodi Richardson, PhD, international anxiety and well-being speaker; best-selling author of Anxious Kids and Anxious Mums; and host of the podcast, Well, hello anxiety
Lori Brotto
Muñoz describes the pervasiveness of overthinking, outlines its destructive nature between partners, and offers tools to replace overthinking with presence. Rumination’s devastation often unfolds because people are unaware of these tendencies, and this book gently invites the reader to consider their own origins of rumination. She outlines the SLOW strategy of seeing, labeling, opening, and welcoming as an effective alternative to rumination. This is a must-read for everyone in a relationship!”—Lori Brotto, PhD, Canada Research Chair in women’s sexual health, and professor at the University of British Columbia
