The Radiant Life Project

01/15/2026

No-contact feels too extreme for your relationship, but low-contact feels more suitable. Then what?

Low-contact still requires strong boundaries and clarity about the healthy limits for the relationship—whether it’s with family, friends, an ex you share custody with, or a professional connection.

BOUNDARIES refers to both the external boundaries you hold with the other person (setting limits on time exposure, topics for discussion, frequency of visits) and also internal boundaries with yourself (how you process and recover from contact, holding yourself accountable to keep limits and edges, seeking help and support when needed).

Think about boundaries in low-contact relationships on three levels:
✨Physical: What do you need for your physical body, space, and energy to feel safe and secure?
✨Emotional: What do you need for emotional safety?
✨Psychological: What do you need to mentally process, understand, and feel clear about what is healthy for you?

✨✨✨

📖⭐️ For help with your most challenging relationship, check my LINK in BIO for my new book “Mend or Move On”

✨✨✨

01/14/2026

Sometimes you just need a definition. I’ve got you.
When it comes to the “toxic” in toxic relationships, there’s a lot of controversy these days.

I recently announced my new book, “Mend or Move On”.
Early in the book I provide the following definitions to help you orient yourself within a challenging relationship. As a licensed therapist, my definitions are based on my clinical experience and my understanding of psychopathology and relationship psychology.

I hope this helps you discern between
Healthy ➡️ Misaligned ➡️ Dysfunctional ➡️ Toxic

****** ******. ******

From “Mend or Move On:”
--> ORDER HERE: https://theradiantlifeproject.com/mend-or-move-on-book

⭕️ Toxic (Oxford English Dictionary Definition):
“Poisonous; harmful or dangerous to health or life.”

⭕️ Toxic Person (Kate’s Definition):
A person who preys on others to satisfy their dysfunctional need for control, power, or security. They use strategies like shame, manipulation, or coercion to meet their own needs at the expense of another. Toxic people often operate from profoundly unhealed trauma and/or mental illness. They are inclined toward vindictive ends in order to avoid the healing that could free them from their poisonous relational tendencies. They can profoundly harm the mind, heart, or spirit of another in their insatiable quest to achieve superiority and control.

⭕️ Toxic Relationship (Kate’s Definition):
A connection between individuals that promotes disease, un-wellness, and/or trauma due to its harmful qualities to the mind, body, heart, or soul. Participants may be toxic in their behaviors, personalities, or qualities, or the toxicity in personalities of the participants themselves outside of the bond.

⭕️ Healthy Relationship (Kate’s Definition):
A connection between individuals that promotes health, well-being, genuine connection, and belonging due to supportive qualities that nourish the mind, body, heart, and soul. Participants feel safe and valued in the dynamic, which leads to growth and vitality in the experiences of all involved.

*** FOR HELP with your most challenging relationships, order my new book, “Mend or Move On” right here: https://theradiantlifeproject.com/mend-or-move-on-book

01/13/2026

People are already saying such lovely things about my new book “Mend or Move On.” I cannot fully express how it feels after years —a lifetime, really— of acquiring the experience and research, and going through the process of writing this powerful book… it truly is impossible to put into words.

Suffice to say, my heart is bursting with gratitude and excitement as I unleash “Mend or Move On” into the world.

❤️🙏May it help, support, and guide you to the healthiest relationships you’ve ever experienced.

📖✨ORDER today:
https://theradiantlifeproject.com/mend-or-move-on-book

Thank you for the beautiful reviews:
sherrie



And of course, my amazing publisher:

01/13/2026

It’s PUB DAY - which means my book is officially published and available everywhere! Thank you to the fabulous team at Johns Hopkins University Press for making this dream a reality.

✨✨TO ORDER your copy:
https://theradiantlifeproject.com/mend-or-move-on-book

In "Mend or Move On," licensed professional counselor and board-certified art therapist Kate King offers a bold, compassionate guide to breaking free from toxic dynamics and reclaiming a life rooted in self-respect and happiness.

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54091/mend-or-move?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic_post&utm_campaign=s26_king

01/13/2026

It’s PUB DAY today - which means my book is officially published and available everywhere!! This is a huge deal as an author, and I’m celebrating.

Everyone knows someone who needs a little help with those challenging relationships we can find ourselves in…

✔️dysfunctional family
✔️toxic friendship
✔️unhealthy workplace
✔️imbalanced relationship that takes more than it gives
✔️romantic relationship on the rocks
✔️toxic partnership

You know who needs this…
Maybe it’s you…

Pass it along to the person you know who is suffering right now in a relationship they don’t know if they can repair or if they should walk away from.

ORDER HERE:
https://theradiantlifeproject.com/mend-or-move-on-book

*
*

01/12/2026

That full heart feeling…. THANK YOU to those who came out to celebrate the launch of my new book. It means more than you know to have your support.

So much love. So much joy and celebration. So many friendships and connections, old and new, to cherish and appreciate.

❤️Just, thank you. That’s all I can really say.❤️

And thank you to Johns Hopkins University Press, my wonderful publisher, for making this dream a reality.

Thank you to The Board Local for the amazing charcuterie boards.

✨✨ORDER My book right here:
https://theradiantlifeproject.com/mend-or-move-on-book

01/12/2026

Sometimes no contact is the right choice, sometimes it’s not… how can you really know what to choose if you’ve been in a difficult, dysfunctional, possibly abusive dynamic and you know something needs to change?

I am Kate King, I’m a licensed therapist.
Here are several things I recommend trying before you go no contact with dysfunctional or toxic family (or really any relationship — friends, coworkers, partnerships, spouses)

⭐️ Communicate your experience directly and honestly
⭐️ Listen to their perspective
⭐️ Be willing to own your part in the dysfunction
⭐️ Ask for what you need
⭐️ Consider family and/or individual therapy
⭐️ Set firmer boundaries
⭐️ Take space for a while
⭐️ Imagine your future with and without them

Many people fear going no contact without trying everything possible first, and later having regrets about their choice. If you try everything and give it your best, and you still choose to end the relationship, there’s immense peace in knowing that you did all you could.

📖⭐️ OH!! I have a new book on exactly this topic called “Mend or Move On” — LINK in BIO to order.

***

01/11/2026

Secrecy. It’s what toxic, dysfunctional families hate the most and strive the hardest to protect.

As a licensed therapist, I have seen this in families I work with, and I have also experienced this personally.

Toxic families will bend over backwards to conceal the dysfunction that lies within. Whether it’s wearing masks, using manipulation and gaslighting to alter perception, faking closeness, or pretending to be a big happy family with no issues… toxic families will do everything they can to avoid other people seeing the dysfunction that lies behind closed doors.

That’s a major part of the dysfunction itself—the unwillingness to see and heal the toxicity inherent in the system.

This is why change makers and cycle breakers end up so often in the scapegoat role. Because they shine light on the things the rest of the family would rather keep secret. The dysfunctional members of the family feel outed or betrayed by a changemaker’s honesty.

Most often the scapegoat, the changemaker, the cycle breaker is actually the healthiest one in the entire system. They break the chains of secrecy and tell the truth about the dysfunction.

***

⭐️📖 For help with your most toxic, challenging relationships read my new book “Mend or Move On.” Find it at my LINK in BIO.

***

01/10/2026

Ending an unhealthy relationship can result in all kinds of responses on the nervous system level — all of them normal, not all of them permanent.

Depending on what you’ve been through in the relationship, and in your entire life experience, your nervous system is wired in certain ways and that might show up when you leave the relationship.

➡️ If there’s been a lot of fear or anxiety leading up to your decision, your nervous system might be activated.

➡️ If there’s been a lot of exhaustion and depletion, you might feel soothed and calmed by finally walking away.

➡️ you might feel a numbness, and wonder why you’re not feeling more.

➡️ You might feel flooded by intense emotion, and that might surprise you.

KNOW THIS: How you feel immediately after you leave a relationship is not how you will always feel. You will likely reach a more stable baseline over time.

Just make sure you take care of yourself until then. Get lots of support from your community, from your closest connections, and from a therapist if needed.

❤️Take care of you❤️

***

📖⭐️ FOR SUPPORT with your most challenging relationships, and relationship endings, check out my book “Mend or Move On” at my LINK in BIO.

***

01/09/2026

The grief is real: you thought they’d be in your life long-term, and the relationship turned out to be either toxic or misaligned to the extent where it could not continue.

❤️‍🩹Maybe you’re estranged
❤️‍🩹Maybe you’re navigating low or no contact
❤️‍🩹Maybe you’re setting new stronger boundaries
❤️‍🩹Maybe you’re just coming to the realization that the relationship is unhealthy and needs to change.

It’s important to remember that just because it doesn’t last doesn’t mean it wasn’t valuable at some point. It doesn’t mean the love or connection wasn’t real. It simply means you are moving away from something outdated, mismatched, or harmful for you.

Honor the grief.
Be present with the grief.
And let it remind you that you are letting go of misalignment and opening yourself up for relationships that nurture, support, and love you in healthier ways.

⭐️📖 My new book is on this exact topic. Find “Mend or Move On” at my LINK in BIO and everywhere books are sold.

01/08/2026

Over apologizers… how often were you apologized to? Likely not as often, or as genuinely, as you really needed.

Am I right?

So apologizing yourself to an extreme extent may have developed in you as a compensatory response to not getting this need for repair and healing you really needed, possibly for your entire life.

If this is you, drop ME in the comments.

⭐️📖 Here to support you with your most challenging relationships with my new book “Mend or Move On” at my LINK in BIO and everywhere books are sold.

***