Friending: Creating Meaningful, Lasting Adult Friendships

Friendships are like any other relationships — when they work, they make our lives better. When they aren't working, or are hard to find, they make our lives more difficult.  Gina Handley Schmitt saw her therapy clients struggling to make and keep close friends, and wrote this book to help solve what is becoming a full-blown friendship crisis in the age of social media. In this book, you'll learn:

How to identify and reach out to potential new friends
How to maintain long term friendships through busy times and life transitions
When and how to state your needs and set boundaries with your friends
Skills for strengthening your friendships by resolving conflicts
The difficult art of ending a friendship

You'll do all this using the five core skills of being available, authentic, affirming, assertive, and accepting. Life is so much sweeter with good friends by your side!

Gina Handley Schmitt, MA, LMHC has been a psychotherapist near Seattle, WA for seventeen years, specializing in achieving their clients' intrapersonal and interpersonal goals. She teaches Psychology at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College and has been a speaker at the Unite Women's Conference and the Northwest Ministry Conference. Handley-Schmitt lives with her husband off the shores of Lake Washington, where they enjoy planning their next Disney adventure.

Each year of life provides us with new opportunities to learn lessons about ourselves, our environments, and our relationships. Even from a very young age, we are assimilating messages and tools that will help inform how we engage in the world...

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