Imagine if we treated broken hearts with the same respect and concern we have for broken arms? Psychologist Guy Winch urges us to rethink the way we deal with emotional pain, offering warm, wise, and witty advice for the broken-hearted. Real heartbreak is unmistakable. We think of nothing else. We feel nothing else. We care about nothing else. Yet while we wouldn’t expect someone to return to daily activities immediately after suffering a broken limb, heartbroken people are expected to function normally in their lives, despite the emotional pain they feel. Now psychologist Guy Winch imagines how different things would be if we paid more attention to this unique emotion—if only we can understand how heartbreak works, we can begin to fix it. Through compelling research and new scientific studies, Winch reveals how and why heartbreak impacts our brain and our behavior in dramatic and unexpected ways, regardless of our age. Emotional pain lowers our ability to reason, to think creatively, to problem solve, and to function at our best. In How to Fix a Broken Heart he focuses on two types of emotional pain—romantic heartbreak and the heartbreak that results from the loss of a cherished pet. These experiences are both accompanied by severe grief responses, yet they are not deemed as important as, for example, a formal divorce or the loss of a close relative. As a result, we are often deprived of the recognition, support, and compassion afforded to those whose heartbreak is considered more significant. Our heart might be broken, but we do not have to break with it. Winch reveals that recovering from heartbreak always starts with a decision, a determination to move on when our mind is fighting to keep us stuck. We can take control of our lives and our minds and put ourselves on the path to healing. Winch offers a toolkit on how to handle and cope with a broken heart and how to, eventually, move on.

“A relationship expert whose work is like that of a scientific Carrie Bradshaw.” —THE OBSERVER A self-affirming, holistic guide for everyone—single or married, divorced or dating—to transforming heartbreak into healing by the founder of the innovative and revolutionary Renew Breakup Bootcamp Amy Chan hit rock bottom when she discovered that her boyfriend cheated on her. Although she was angry and broken-hearted, Chan soon came to realize that the breakup was the shakeup she needed to redirect her life. Instead of descending into darkness, she used the pain of the breakup as a bridge to self-actualization. She devoted herself to learning various healing modalities from the ancient to the scientific, and dived into the psychology of love. It worked. Fast forward years later, Amy completely transformed her life, her relationships and founded a breakup bootcamp helping countless women heal their hearts. In Breakup Bootcamp, Amy Chan directs her experience as a relationship columnist and as the creator of Renew Breakup Bootcamp into a practical, thoughtful guide to turning broken hearts into an opportunity to break out of complacency and destructive habits. Dubbed "the Chief Heart Hacker," Amy Chan grounds her practical advice and tried and tested methods rooted in cutting-edge psychology and research, helping first her bootcamp attendees and now her readers most effectively heal and reclaim their self-love. Breakup Bootcamp comes at the perfect time, when many are feeling the intensity of being in or out of a relationship, lonely or suffocated, and flirting with old toxic relationships they’ve outgrown. Relatable, life-changing, and backed by sound scientific research, Breakup Bootcamp can help anyone turn their greatest heartbreak into a powerful tool for growth.

Welcome to Black Dog Bay, a tiny seaside town in Delaware known as “the best place in America to bounce back from your breakup.” Home to the Better Off Bed-and-Breakfast, the Eat Your Heart Out bakery, and the Whinery bar, Black Dog Bay offers a haven for the suddenly single. Flight attendant Summer Benson lives by two rules: Don’t stay with the same man for too long and never stay in one place. She’s about to break rule number one by considering accepting her boyfriend’s proposal—then disaster strikes and her world is shattered in an instant. Summer heads to Black Dog Bay, where the locals welcome her. Even Hattie Huntington, the town’s oldest, richest, and meanest resident, likes her enough to give her a job. Then there’s Dutch Jansen, the rugged, stoic mayor, who’s the opposite of her type. She probably shouldn’t be kissing him. She definitely shouldn’t be falling in love. After a lifetime of globe-trotting, Summer has finally found a home. But Hattie has old scores to settle and a hidden agenda for her newest employee. Summer finds herself faced with an impossible choice: Leave Black Dog Bay behind forever, or stay with the ones she loves and cost them everything....

Winner of the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A Five Books "Best Literary Science Writing" Book of 2023 • A Smithsonian Best Science Book of 2022 • A Prospect Magazine Top Memoir of 2022 • A KCRW Life Examined Best Book of 2022 "Keen observer [and] deft writer" (David Quammen) Florence Williams explores the fascinating, cutting-edge science of heartbreak while seeking creative ways to mend her own. When her twenty-five-year marriage suddenly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the frontiers of the science of "social pain" to learn why heartbreak hurts so much—and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong. Soon Williams finds herself on a surprising path that leads her from neurogenomic research laboratories to trying MDMA in a Portland therapist’s living room, from divorce workshops to the mountains and rivers that restore her. She tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, undergoes electrical shocks while looking at pictures of her ex, and discovers that our immune cells listen to loneliness. Searching for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, she seeks out new relationships and ventures into the wilderness in search of an extraordinary antidote: awe. With warmth, daring, wit, and candor, Williams offers a gripping account of grief and healing. Heartbreak is a remarkable merging of science and self-discovery that will change the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in and out of love.

Turn Your Breakup into a Breakout! Going through a breakup? Well-meaning family, friends, and the internet seem to be repeating the same message over and over: "Get over it already and move on with your life!" But why do you still feel stuck?Losing your significant other under the best of circumstances is hard. Now, breaking up is often a public affair as social media adds new dimensions to your loss. Breaking up can create feelings of anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and social isolation. How can you process this complex emotional terrain, navigate the social dynamics of a breakup with grace, and emerge on the other side as an even better version of yourself? Turn your breakup into a breakout! BreakUp & BreakOut was created to help empower people and take the shame and isolation out of breakups. Informed by modern research in psychology and years of relational clinical practice, BreakUp & BreakOut includes guided exercises to make your healing an active process that you have control over. Learn how to deal with overwhelming feelings, manage compulsive behaviors, grapple with the modern dimensions of breakups such as ghosting, identify and transform self-destructive patterns, and invest in yourself so that you will emerge from this challenging experience to find a new and more evolved you on the other side. ...Rachel Thomasian and Tina Setteducate are Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists who work with couples and individuals who are experiencing breakups. In their 15 combined years of clinical experience they have noticed common patterns and themes in people's pain as well as in their healing. BreakUp & BreakOut offers the reader practical, informed, and effective ways to process the difficult and often complex emotions,

The loss of a love is a nearly universal emotional crisis, whether the end is divorce, desertion, or a mutually agreed-upon separation. At first, friends and family are there to offer a shoulder to cry on, but after a few months there's an expectation that we just need to get over the crisis and move on. Thus, unprocessed, painful feelings are buried, leaving us numb. Or we repeat damaging relationship patterns over and over again. The situation doesn't have to be like that. Healing a Broken Heart guides those of us grieving for a lost love through four metaphorical seasons of recovery with provocative questions -- and journal pages on which to respond -- to help move us forward. The four seasons serve as powerful metaphors for the stages of the grieving process. Summer is the season for charting the course of a relationship: remembering hopes and expectations, the warning signs that went unheeded. During autumn, journalers accept the reality of breaking up and acknowledge things about the relationship that didn't serve their needs. Winter brings the pain of grief over the profound loss. Finally, spring -- and, with it, renewal -- invites readers to examine and understand how their family history may have affected their past relationships. Punctuated throughout with poems and moving meditations, the thoughtful, interactive approach of this book offers the time and space we all need to heal when our hearts are broken.