At it’s heart, a family is about relationships. When you have people of varying ages, personalities and tastes living under the same roof, disagreements and conflict are going to happen at some point. Unfortunately, some families let those disagreements grow and lead to permanent ruptures in the fabric of what was once their family.
The new book Relational Reset by Dr. Laurel Shaler attempts to help readers get to the root of their relationship issues and make the changes necessary to heal broken bonds.
I love the way the book is organized. Shaler has a chapter on each of the twelve areas she believes cause breakdowns in our relationships. She covers everything from insecurity to dismissing blame and more. Reading through the book, her list seems pretty thorough. There may be other things that can cause issues, but most seem to fall within her major categories.
Each area is covered with very easy to understand examples. Her advice is practical and in theory easy to follow. It may not technically be ground breaking advice, but they are things we all do and fail to correct. Each chapter ends with a question asking the reader to be honest about how that behavior is impacting their relationships with others. There is also a question/assignment in each chapter that encourages the reader to take a bit of a deeper dive into scripture.
The book is Christian in nature, but the advice is not anything a secular person would find overly religious. She does quote scriptures, but just a bit in each chapter. Each chapter ends with a written prayer. Personally, I’m not a fan of using valuable space to tell someone else exactly what to pray. I would rather her have given a brief assignment to move the reader even closer to dealing with that particular issue in a relationship.
If you are struggling with a relationship or know someone who is, this is a great book for looking at the various possibilities for why there are problems. It doesn’t address serious issues like abuse or infidelity – it’s more for every day relationship issues with friends or family. This is also a great resource to keep on hand to help others you may be mentoring. It’s definitely worth using it to help yourself or others heal broken relationships.
This book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review. Affiliate links are included for your convenience.