
Boundaries are essential to relationships because they set the basic guidelines for how you should be treated. Learn how to talk about your needs and clearly communicate when boundaries are being crossed.
Safety & Break-up Planning

A safety plan is a personalized plan to try to avoid or remove yourself from potentially dangerous situations. Anyone in an unhealthy or abusive relationship can and should establish a safety plan whether they plan to leave the relationship or not. Spur of the moment breakups can lead to an unhealthy and potentially dangerous on-again, off-again pattern. If a breakup is planned, it is more likely to last.

The most dangerous time in any relationship is during and after a breakup – especially in unhealthy relationships.
Why? Because in an unhealthy or abusive relationship, the person who is showing unhealthy behaviors is doing these things from a place of needing control. That is where unhealthy behaviors stem from: power and control. When that person is being told that their partner is breaking up with them, it can cause a person to snap in a way that they haven’t ever snapped in the past.

If you are in an unhealthy or abusive relationship, you should know that the abuse is not your fault and that you deserve to feel safe. Asking for help to leave a relationship that no longer makes you happy or threatens your safety is a sign of strength, and there is no weakness in leaning on the people and resources around you. You do not have to be in immediate crisis to get help.
Preparation is key in keeping yourself as safe as possible. For more help creating a safety plan, please visit our Get Help page.