Why do we keep choosing the wrong person to love? In this episode of Secret Life of Therapists, Dr. Stephen Edwards, author and therapist, breaks down how unhealthy coping patterns shape our relationships. He explains that patterns like anxiety, avoidance, fear of abandonment, or people-pleasing often come from early life experiences and can lead us toward partners who feel familiar… even when they hurt us.

Dr. Edwards also wrote The Venus Fly Trap: Sex, Lies, and Repercussions, which is a raw memoir about obsession, chaotic love, and emotional destructiveness that illustrates how powerful—and self-sabotaging—attraction can be when coping gets entangled with desire. Big takeaway: until we understand our coping strategies, we risk mistaking emotional familiarity for safety and repeating the same painful cycles over and over. Dr.Stephen Paul  ...