The Owner's Manual for Thriving Relationships

by Mitch Abblett

Overview

A unique and essential guide to cultivating healthier relationships.

In this unique guide to improving relationships, clinical psychologist Mitch Abblett provides advice and tips on how to build more meaningful connections in every area of life—family, friendships, romantic partnerships, and professional relationships. Dr. Abblett encourages readers to replace blame, avoidance, and control-based possessiveness with the liberating practice of relational ownership.

This refreshing guide introduces a practical, accessible framework to help readers navigate relationship challenges, identify the habits that keep them stuck, and build vibrant, healthier patterns of relating. Dr. Abblett explains how to:

• Shift from blaming others to fully owning one's role and responses in relationships
• Recognize relationships as a series of moments to be authentically engaged, rather than problems to be solved or people to be managed
• Break control-based habits by transforming possessive or defensive patterns that hinder meaningful connections
• Address the stories we tell ourselves that contribute to relationship pain and disconnection
• Develop skills for mindful awareness, empathetic understanding, and taking aligned actions in challenging interactions
• Understand others' perspectives and emotions without defensiveness or judgment
• Repair relationships, address past conflicts, navigate resentment, and create safe spaces for emotional healing
• Practice self-care in relationships by balancing the needs of others with self-compassion and boundaries

Through engaging stories, perspective-shifting tools, and reflective exercises, The Owner's Manual for Thriving Relationships offers a fresh, empowering approach to improving the quality of relationships and unlocking a life of richer, more authentic connections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421453248
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	11/18/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mitch Abblett is a practicing clinical psychologist and the author of the Nautilus Gold Medal Award–winning Prizeworthy: How to Meaningfully Connect, Build Character, and Unlock the Potential of Every Child.

Mitch Abblett is a practicing clinical psychologist and the author of the Nautilus Gold Medal award-winning Prizeworthy: How to Meaningfully Connect, Build Character, and Unlock the Potential of Every Child.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Introduction: When It Comes to Your Relationships, You're Possessed!
1. Coming to Terms: Descriptions of the Relationship "Product" and "Owner"
2. How to (Not) Use Relationships
3. Care and Maintenance of Your Relationships
4. The Relationship Repair Mindset
5. Relationship Repair Action
6. Responsible Recycling: Managing Endings and Transitions
Appendix: The Owner's Index to Skill Practices for Specific Situations
Bibliography
Author Biography

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

If you've known your relationships could be more rewarding but weren't sure how to get there, this is the book for you. Abblett provides straightforward, science-based skills that support strong connections, delivered with his characteristic humor and poignancy. Follow his guidance to transform your desire for thriving relationships into reality.
—Seth J. Gillihan, PhD, author of Retrain Your Brain: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 Weeks

A bold, compassionate guide to transforming your relationships by showing up fully in each moment. With clarity and heart, Abblett teaches us to drop control and own our part with humility and courage. A practical path to deeper connection, grounded in presence, self-compassion, and real change.
—Tim Desmond, author of Self-Compassion in Psychotherapy: Mindfulness-Based Practices for Healing and Transformation

Through wonderful personal and professional anecdotes, Abblett teaches us to own our mistakes, own our successes, and most importantly, own our only lives that we might more effectively have thriving relationships and a better world.
—Christopher Willard, PsyD, author of How We Grow Through What We Go Through: Self-Compassion Practices for Post-Traumatic Growth