How to love or be a supportive partner are not subjects we’re taught in school. Learning about your role in love, sex and intimacy is a great way to create and sustain a healthy relationship.

Only until a couple of centuries ago, arranged marriages were the norm, designed to unite families and ensure inheritance lines. But relationships in the modern world are abound with choice, and we’re meant to trust our feelings, rather than do what we’re told by our family, when choosing the right partner. Cue the relationship issues.

We’re not taught how to recognize our feelings of attraction, how to pick the right mate or even how a healthy relationship works. Instead, we’re expected to figure things out as we go. For some of us, this means relying on what we experienced in childhood, where the love we received wasn’t necessarily about care and tenderness, leading to toxic relationships in the future. For others, this means we have some okay-ish relationships, but we’re left wondering if we’re with the right person or doing the right thing concerning parenthood, communication, and expressing love.

Rather than continuing to fall for the wrong person, being perpetually unhappy, or questioning if we’re doing the right things in our relationships, we can work with a professional to learn what type of person is right for us, shift our perception of what a meaningful relationship should be, and teach us how to be better partners.