"Why are women's friendships so deep yet so fragile? Friendship coach and educator Danielle Bayard Jackson unpacks the latest research about women's cooperation and communication, while sharing practical strategies to preserve and strengthen these relationships. Fighting for Our Friendships is one part textbook, one part handbook. Readers will not only learn what the latest research has to say about the mechanics of women's friendships, but they'll walk away with real-life solutions for the most common conflicts that arise in their platonic relationships. Using a combination of psychology, science, narrative, and a few of the author's signature scripts and out-of-the-box exercises, readers will learn: the three 'affinities' that bring women together (and tear them apart), scripts to navigate nine of the most challenging 'friend types' (and how to know which one you are), the covert strategies women use to hurt each other (and how to avoid them), how to have a hard conversation with a friend (without losing the friendship), surprising ways that women's people-pleasing delays platonic intimacy (and how to stop it), how to know if a friendship is worth saving (and what to do to recover), and how to make (and deepen!) connections with other women. In a time when we are often encouraged to opt out of friendships at any sign of friction, Danielle Bayard Jackson is showing us how to opt in." -- Description provided by publisher.