Helping Friends in Unhealthy Relationships

When a friend comes to you and talks about harmful and abusive behavior in their relationship, you may not know what to do. You might feel like you can’t really help them. But as their friend, you’re one of the best people to help them! Just being there to listen and support them is a good first step is helping your friend.

This section is dedicated to giving you the tools you need to help a friend who is in an abusive relationship. Here, you’ll find:

• How to Help Friends – learn general guidelines on how to support your friends or yourself in an abusive relationship
• The Friends Wheel – this go-to guide shows many different ways of helping friends very quickly
• Barriers to Getting Help – to help someone else get the help they might need, you have to know some of the struggles your friend might face
• Guidelines for Helping Someone Who is Being Abused – talking with a friend is never easy, but here are some tools to help you
• Guidelines for Helping Someone Who is Abusive – a short guide to help you when confronting a friend

You might also want to explore our “Stories” and “Resources” sections to find what you’re looking for too.

Remember that all of these tools are important to know how to help a friend or yourself if an abusive or harmful situation should arise!

If you have any questions that aren’t answered here, please feel free to contact us via phone at (414) 390-0444.