Welcome to Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens.

And in this bonus episode, I'm delighted to be joined by a special guest, author and life coach, Michelle Elman.

Having written four best-selling books already, she's now turned her attention to friendships in her upcoming book,

Bad Friend, Why Friendship Breakups Hurt and How to Heal.

Michelle joins me today to workshop her own friendship dilemma, to explore when is it time

to bite your tongue in friendships, and when does our silence make us complicit? When is it our friend we're trying to

save? And when is it really a younger part of ourselves? Michelle's book is out next May and you can

pre-order your copy now. All the details are in the show notes. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this

episode.

Hi, Michelle, how can I help? Hi, my friendship issue is I'm a person who's been very interested

in personal development and has been my whole life. And so I'm always the person that, like,

I don't complain about things. I either do it or I don't do it. And even I'm always the person that, like, I don't complain about things.

I either do it or I don't do it.

And even if it's, like, making the wrong decision,

I'm not going to pretend I'm doing the right thing.

I always say I make the consciously irresponsible decision.

Like, as long as you're conscious about it, that's my rule in life.

Which means sometimes in friendships,

if people are making bad decisions

after bad decisions or line to themselves, and largely it's more line to themselves and

lying to me, it gets really frustrating, especially when it comes to who they date, going

back to a person who they know treats them badly, going back to the same person over and over

...