As we near the end of the holiday season and another year fades into a sea of memories, gratitude, regrets, and dismay, it’s understandable to reflect on our relationships. To ponder what has worked and what has not. To look back at previous years and experience a pang of nostalgia or longing.

Kerry Lusignan was the featured guest on The Couples Therapist Couch, a podcast by Licensed Marriage and Family therapist, Shane Birkel, that has showcased the likes of Stan Tatkin, George Faller and Harville Hendrix.

Many couples and families are enduring forced separation because of complex and changing immigration and refugee policies.

If there is one relationship superpower that borders on being magic; that has an effect akin to sparks flying from your fingertips and bending metal, it’s cardiac manipulation–a relationship skill that does just that.

If I had to pick just one relationship superpower for the top of my list…a heavy hitter that would get you the most bang for your buck in the arena of love and life, it would be this: Emotional Fluency (a.k.a Omnilingualism of the heart).

Flexibility, when done well, is indicative of accepting influence. It demonstrates that you’re not stuck in a rigid and fixed perspective. One where you hold tightly to your own stories and refuse to stretch yourself and try on your partner’s viewpoint.

What happens if, from the very beginning, life slaps us down and turns us away, meeting us with desynchronization or silence?

Invisibility (aka disappearing, taking space, or getting quiet) is one of the most challenging relationship superpowers to master.

Knowing how to stand up for yourself is no small feat. I would even argue it’s a superpower, and like all superpowers, it takes time and skill to master.

The story of Narcissist cautions of the perils of living in a one-sided relationship. A marriage where one person’s words and behaviors dominate and where there’s little (if any) room for mutuality.