Summarise Your Relationship With a Difficult Person Into a Useful Pattern

You have been having the same argument with the same person for two years. Or you are managing around someone at work and it is costing you energy every week. This turns the pattern into a clear account: what triggers it, what your part in it is, and one thing you have not tried. If the relationship cannot be changed by your behaviour, this helps you see that too.

Describe a difficult ongoing relationship: the person, the typical pattern of interactions, what you have tried so far, and what consistently goes wrong. Then produce a summary of under 200 words covering: the pattern in the relationship (what typically triggers difficulty, what typically follows), what your own behaviour contributes to the pattern, one thing you have not yet tried, and whether you have a clear picture of what a better outcome actually looks like. Be specific rather than general. If the honest answer is that the relationship is not changeable by your behaviour alone, say that plainly.