If You Think Your Partner Is Emotionally Unavailable, Here's What You Can Do

You’ve had a hard day, but you hesitate to tell your partner about it. You try to start a conversation but they don’t seem to have anything to say or to be listening. When you tell them how you’re feeling, they’re dismissive. These are all qualities that people use to describe an emotionally unavailable partner.

It’s a truly lonely predicament, Lynn Fainsilber Katz, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist, research professor at the University of Washington, and certified Gottman Couples Therapist tells Woman’s Day. “It’s really a very painful experience in a relationship,” she explains. “Partners end up feeling quite isolated from each other and lonely, and often look elsewhere for emotional support.”

But here’s the catch-22: trying to draw your partner out often pushes them farther away, exactly the opposite of what your goal is.

So what can you do if you feel like you’re not as close as you once were? Woman’s Day spoke with two psychologists to find out what to do when your partner is emotionally unavailable.