Blog - Emma Byers Coaching

How to Have Difficult Conversations: Practical Tools That Actually Help
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How to Have Difficult Conversations: Practical Tools That Actually Help

Difficult Conversations, Healthy boundaries

How to Have Difficult Conversations: Practical Tools That Actually Help

This is part two of a two-part series about how to have difficult conversations. In part one, I introduced the Transactional Analysis model of ego states and transactions, and why understanding which state you're operating from can genuinely change how a conversation goes. It's worth a read before diving into this one, though these tools will make sense on their own too. Knowing the theory is one thing. Using it when you're in the middle of a [...]

Emma Byers2026-05-21T10:03:53+00:0020 May 2026|Categories: Difficult Conversations, Healthy boundaries|Tags: difficult conversations, Ego states, Finding your voice, grown up conversations, having difficult conversations, navigating confliect, Speaking up, Transactional Analysis|Comments Off

Having Difficult Conversations: The Ego States and Transactional Analysis
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Having Difficult Conversations: The Ego States and Transactional Analysis

Difficult Conversations, Healthy boundaries

Having Difficult Conversations: The Ego States and Transactional Analysis

Why Difficult Conversations Feel So Hard Most of us have a conversation we've been putting off. Perhaps there's something at work that isn't working; a friendship that's become one-sided, a situation at home that needs to be addressed but we’re ducking. We know we need to say something, but the thought of actually saying it feels too much. Not only our own stress and anxiety, but also the worry about how the other person is going to react. [...]

Emma Byers2026-05-07T15:42:02+00:007 May 2026|Categories: Difficult Conversations, Healthy boundaries|Tags: difficult conversations, Ego states, Finding your voice, grown up conversations, having difficult conversations, navigating confliect, Speaking up, Transactional Analysis|Comments Off

Healthy Boundaries #5: Somatic Boundaries: Teaching Your Body It’s Safe to Say No
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Healthy Boundaries #5: Somatic Boundaries: Teaching Your Body It’s Safe to Say No

Healthy boundaries

Healthy Boundaries #5: Somatic Boundaries: Teaching Your Body It’s Safe to Say No

We're at the final blog in this series on healthy boundaries. We've covered feeling responsible for everyone else, understanding what boundaries actually are, how to set boundaries without the guilt spiral, and maintaining boundaries when everything wants to let them slip. But there's one piece we haven't fully addressed yet. You can know intellectually that boundaries are important. You can have the scripts ready. You can understand why you need them. And still, when it comes to actually holding [...]

Emma Byers2026-04-09T13:20:58+00:009 April 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: boundary setting, empathy, healthy boundaries, holding healthy boundaries, how to hold healthy boundaries, maintaining boundaries, resetting boundaries, sensitivity, tolerable steps, understanding healthy boundaries|Comments Off

Healthy Boundaries #4: Maintaining Boundaries When Everything Wants to Let Them Slip
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Healthy Boundaries #4: Maintaining Boundaries When Everything Wants to Let Them Slip

Healthy boundaries

Healthy Boundaries #4: Maintaining Boundaries When Everything Wants to Let Them Slip

I'm still talking about healthy boundaries! The more I write, the more there is to cover. I hope you're finding this series about holding healthy boundaries useful (and there's still more to come). If you're just joining us, we've already covered feeling responsible for everyone else, understanding what boundaries actually are, and how to set boundaries without the guilt spiral. If you've been following along and giving boundaries a go, you've probably discovered something. Setting a boundary is one [...]

Emma Byers2026-03-26T20:11:04+00:0026 March 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: boundary setting, empathy, healthy boundaries, holding healthy boundaries, how to hold healthy boundaries, maintaining boundaries, resetting boundaries, sensitivity, tolerable steps, understanding healthy boundaries|Comments Off

Healthy Boundaries #3: How to Set Boundaries (Without the Guilt Spiral)
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Healthy Boundaries #3: How to Set Boundaries (Without the Guilt Spiral)

Healthy boundaries

Healthy Boundaries #3: How to Set Boundaries (Without the Guilt Spiral)

So far in this series on healthy boundaries, we've explored feeling responsible for everyone else's emotions and understanding what boundaries actually are when you've never really had them. You might be liking the sound of these healthy boundaries, but still wondering how to put them into practice. Knowing you need boundaries and actually implementing them are two completely different things. Especially when everything inside you is screaming that setting a boundary is selfish, unkind, or will result in conflict [...]

Emma Byers2026-03-12T13:12:44+00:0012 March 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: boundary setting, empathy, healthy boundaries, how to hold healthy boundaries, sensitivity, tolerable steps, understanding healthy boundaries|Comments Off

Healthy Boundaries #2: Understanding Healthy Boundaries (when you’ve never really had them)
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Healthy Boundaries #2: Understanding Healthy Boundaries (when you’ve never really had them)

Healthy boundaries

Healthy Boundaries #2: Understanding Healthy Boundaries (when you’ve never really had them)

Last week, I wrote about feeling responsible for everyone else's emotions – that exhausting pattern of carrying weight that isn't yours, losing yourself while trying to keep everyone else happy. If that resonated with you, it's likely because somewhere along the way you never really learned what healthy boundaries look and feel like. And that makes sense. As children, we learn by watching adults set, respect, and communicate limits. Also, by practicing through interactions like sharing, respecting personal space, [...]

Emma Byers2026-02-26T20:28:39+00:0026 February 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries|Tags: boundary setting, empathy, healthy boundaries, how to hold healthy boundaries, HSP, people pleasing, sensitivity, understanding healthy boundaries|Comments Off

Healthy Boundaries #1: Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Read this…
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Healthy Boundaries #1: Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Read this…

Healthy boundaries, People pleasing

Healthy Boundaries #1: Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Read this…

Do you tense up when you know someone's upset? Are you always scanning to check if everyone's okay, perhaps running through what you might have said or done wrong? Do you focus so much time on trying to keep the atmosphere happy or harmonious, that you always biting your tongue, and losing sight of what you really think and feel? If you're nodding, you're probably someone who feels responsible for everyone else's wellbeing, happiness, and emotions. Not in a [...]

Emma Byers2026-05-15T04:23:51+00:0012 February 2026|Categories: Healthy boundaries, People pleasing|Tags: boundary setting, empathy, healthy boundaries, how to hold healthy boundaries, HSP, people pleasing, sensitivity, taking on other people's stuff|Comments Off

Find Your Glimmers: Tiny Moments of Joy and Calm in Difficult Times
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Find Your Glimmers: Tiny Moments of Joy and Calm in Difficult Times

Goal setting, setting intentions

Find Your Glimmers: Tiny Moments of Joy and Calm in Difficult Times

If you’re anything like me, you might be finding world pretty sad and scary right now. There’s an endless cycle of difficult, distressing news, exacerbated of course by a 24 hour news cycle, along with apps and social media pumping out endless fear alerts (my tip - ditch the apps and any app alerts!). And of course, here in the UK we’re in the midst of a very gloomy January. I can’t tell you the last time I saw [...]

Emma Byers2026-01-29T17:42:35+00:0029 January 2026|Categories: Goal setting, setting intentions|Tags: end of year review, goal setting, New Year resolutions, personal inventory, Setting intentions, year end review|Comments Off

No More New Year Resolutions – Try Intentions Instead
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No More New Year Resolutions – Try Intentions Instead

Goal setting, setting intentions

No More New Year Resolutions – Try Intentions Instead

Here we are again. January. The cold, dark belly of winter. And yet everywhere around us there's this frantic energy demanding we reinvent ourselves, smash goals, and become entirely new people. No wonder so many New Year resolutions crash and burn before the month is out. The Problem with January It’s a drum I beat regularly - January is probably the worst time to launch ourselves into ambitious new regimes. In Chinese Medicine, winter is the season [...]

Emma Byers2026-01-16T10:50:58+00:0013 January 2026|Categories: Goal setting, setting intentions|Tags: end of year review, goal setting, New Year resolutions, personal inventory, Setting intentions, year end review|Comments Off

A Christmas Survival Guide for Introverts and Anyone Who Finds Xmas Tough
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A Christmas Survival Guide for Introverts and Anyone Who Finds Xmas Tough

Emotional health, Healthy boundaries, Introvert, saying no, Self Care

A Christmas Survival Guide for Introverts and Anyone Who Finds Xmas Tough

At this time of year, it can be easy to forget that it's not the magazine spread of perfect, happy families for everyone. There's many people dreading this time of year. The introverts who find relentless socialising and "being on" exhausting. Those with "complicated" family dynamics, with love and hate and hurt and a million things left unsaid. The lonely and alone, made to feel like the odd ones out. And of course, there's many for whom this time [...]

Emma Byers2025-12-16T22:17:08+00:0016 December 2025|Categories: Emotional health, Healthy boundaries, Introvert, saying no, Self Care|Tags: boundary setting, Christmas, Christmas survival guide, introvert, self-care|Comments Off

How to Have Difficult Conversations: Practical Tools That Actually Help

Having Difficult Conversations: The Ego States and Transactional Analysis

Healthy Boundaries #5: Somatic Boundaries: Teaching Your Body It’s Safe to Say No

Healthy Boundaries #4: Maintaining Boundaries When Everything Wants to Let Them Slip

Healthy Boundaries #3: How to Set Boundaries (Without the Guilt Spiral)

Healthy Boundaries #2: Understanding Healthy Boundaries (when you’ve never really had them)

Healthy Boundaries #1: Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions? Read this…

Find Your Glimmers: Tiny Moments of Joy and Calm in Difficult Times

No More New Year Resolutions – Try Intentions Instead

A Christmas Survival Guide for Introverts and Anyone Who Finds Xmas Tough

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