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Mend or Move On: A Guide to Healing or Leaving Toxic Relationships
A therapeutic guide to recognizing, releasing, and recovering from relationships that harm your mental and emotional health.
Relationships are meant to nourish us—but what happens when they cause harm instead? 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.
King challenges the long-held belief that family loyalty and social harmony should come at the expense of personal well-being. This book is not about saving every connection—it's about knowing which relationships are worth healing, and which ones demand an honest goodbye. With insight, clarity, and empathy, King outlines the seven most common traps that keep people stuck in painful friendships, partnerships, family bonds, and professional dynamics. These include internalized guilt, unhealed trauma, codependency, and more. She guides readers through the difficult process of deciding whether to stay or walk away by outlining practical, psychology-informed tools that support both paths. Whether repairing a struggling bond or finding the strength to sever it, readers will gain strategies to navigate complex emotional territory with integrity.
Through cutting-edge research and powerful stories from her clients and her own life, King offers a safe space to explore questions of belonging, betrayal, boundaries, and healing. Her unique approach provides a holistic path forward that emphasizes creative expression, evidence-based concepts, and nervous system regulation. This guide invites readers to build relationships that are honest, kind, and respectful—and to walk away from those that are dysfunctional, abusive, and beyond repair.
Relationships are meant to nourish us—but what happens when they cause harm instead? 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.
King challenges the long-held belief that family loyalty and social harmony should come at the expense of personal well-being. This book is not about saving every connection—it's about knowing which relationships are worth healing, and which ones demand an honest goodbye. With insight, clarity, and empathy, King outlines the seven most common traps that keep people stuck in painful friendships, partnerships, family bonds, and professional dynamics. These include internalized guilt, unhealed trauma, codependency, and more. She guides readers through the difficult process of deciding whether to stay or walk away by outlining practical, psychology-informed tools that support both paths. Whether repairing a struggling bond or finding the strength to sever it, readers will gain strategies to navigate complex emotional territory with integrity.
Through cutting-edge research and powerful stories from her clients and her own life, King offers a safe space to explore questions of belonging, betrayal, boundaries, and healing. Her unique approach provides a holistic path forward that emphasizes creative expression, evidence-based concepts, and nervous system regulation. This guide invites readers to build relationships that are honest, kind, and respectful—and to walk away from those that are dysfunctional, abusive, and beyond repair.
300 pages, Paperback
Published January 13, 2026
About the author
Kate King
3 books1 followerKate King is an award-winning author, as well as a Licensed Professional Counselor, Board-Certified Art Therapist, and Radiant Life Coach. She is also a professional artist and three-time published author. Kate was also awarded the Best Counselor of Littleton award in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
In addition, Kate is the founder and owner of The Radiant Life Project, where her mission is to help individuals heal their inner wounds so that they can bring their highest selves into the collective. Kate is widely known for helping her clients and audience learn to cultivate radiant lives that shine so brightly they impact and improve the lives of those surrounding them. Kate’s work is filled with an expansive array of inspiring resources, tools, and practices that provide an accessible entry point into a life of greater authenticity, fulfillment, and illumination.
Through The Radiant Life Project, Kate seeks to engage and empower her audience with the skill base from her 15+ years as a licensed clinical psychotherapist and board-certified art therapist, as well as the wisdom she has acquired through her own healing growth journey in the school of life. Kate’s work incorporates the fusion of brain sciences, diverse psychotherapeutic modalities, spiritual practices, creative expression, and attuned connection to provide a unique and effective strategy not only for healing and growth, but for the true freedom that comes with authentic living. It is Kate’s utmost passion to teach others how to reclaim their truest Selves and intentionally create and sustain a life that absolutely radiates with joy, possibility, creativity, wholeness, and meaningful purpose.
Kate’s first book, “The Authentic Mother,” is a creatively-based companion book that offers support and healing tools for new mothers on their complex journey of welcoming a child into their lives. It acknowledges and attunes to the massive stretch that happens in early motherhood, and offers an invitation toward authenticity and compassion while accessing creative, therapeutic, and scientific resources for self-support.
Kate’s second book, “The Radiant Life Project,” is a comprehensive infusion of all things creative, therapeutic, scientific, and spiritual from Kate’s clinical and personal skill base that contribute to the cultivation of a life that satisfies, gratifies, and rings with the empowering truth of authentic radiance.
Kate's NEW book with Johns Hopkins University press, is "Mend or Move On: A Guide to Healing or Leaving Toxic Relationships." This is a therapeutic guide to navigating difficult friendships, family relationships, professional connections, and romantic partnerships. It helps readers to recognize, release, and recover from relationships that harm their mental and emotional health. This book is not about saving every connection—it's about knowing which relationships are worth healing, and which demand an honest goodbye. Readers are compassionately guided through the difficult process of deciding whether to stay or walk away with practical, psychology-informed tools that support both paths.
In addition, Kate is the founder and owner of The Radiant Life Project, where her mission is to help individuals heal their inner wounds so that they can bring their highest selves into the collective. Kate is widely known for helping her clients and audience learn to cultivate radiant lives that shine so brightly they impact and improve the lives of those surrounding them. Kate’s work is filled with an expansive array of inspiring resources, tools, and practices that provide an accessible entry point into a life of greater authenticity, fulfillment, and illumination.
Through The Radiant Life Project, Kate seeks to engage and empower her audience with the skill base from her 15+ years as a licensed clinical psychotherapist and board-certified art therapist, as well as the wisdom she has acquired through her own healing growth journey in the school of life. Kate’s work incorporates the fusion of brain sciences, diverse psychotherapeutic modalities, spiritual practices, creative expression, and attuned connection to provide a unique and effective strategy not only for healing and growth, but for the true freedom that comes with authentic living. It is Kate’s utmost passion to teach others how to reclaim their truest Selves and intentionally create and sustain a life that absolutely radiates with joy, possibility, creativity, wholeness, and meaningful purpose.
Kate’s first book, “The Authentic Mother,” is a creatively-based companion book that offers support and healing tools for new mothers on their complex journey of welcoming a child into their lives. It acknowledges and attunes to the massive stretch that happens in early motherhood, and offers an invitation toward authenticity and compassion while accessing creative, therapeutic, and scientific resources for self-support.
Kate’s second book, “The Radiant Life Project,” is a comprehensive infusion of all things creative, therapeutic, scientific, and spiritual from Kate’s clinical and personal skill base that contribute to the cultivation of a life that satisfies, gratifies, and rings with the empowering truth of authentic radiance.
Kate's NEW book with Johns Hopkins University press, is "Mend or Move On: A Guide to Healing or Leaving Toxic Relationships." This is a therapeutic guide to navigating difficult friendships, family relationships, professional connections, and romantic partnerships. It helps readers to recognize, release, and recover from relationships that harm their mental and emotional health. This book is not about saving every connection—it's about knowing which relationships are worth healing, and which demand an honest goodbye. Readers are compassionately guided through the difficult process of deciding whether to stay or walk away with practical, psychology-informed tools that support both paths.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 4, 2026
This book is basically therapy without the awkward eye contact. Mend or Move On by Kate King dives straight into those relationships that drain you but somehow still have you saying, “Maybe I’m overreacting?” Spoiler: you’re probably not.
What makes this hit so hard is that it doesn’t push the “just forgive and fix it” agenda. Kate gives you full permission to admit that some relationships aren’t meant to be saved and that choosing yourself isn’t selfish, it’s necessary.
The seven traps she breaks down? Guilt. Trauma bonds. Codependency. Fear of being the villain. Yeah, all the reasons we stay way longer than we should. And the best part? It’s not all doom and deep thinking, she gives practical tools that actually help you decide whether to mend things or walk away with peace.
I loved how this book blends psychology, creative healing, and nervous system care. It feels gentle but honest, supportive but firm, like a guide holding your hand while also nudging you toward self-respect.
If you’re stuck in a relationship that’s confusing, exhausting, or slowly shrinking you, Mend or Move On might be the sign you’ve been waiting for. Read it when you’re ready to choose peace over guilt.
What makes this hit so hard is that it doesn’t push the “just forgive and fix it” agenda. Kate gives you full permission to admit that some relationships aren’t meant to be saved and that choosing yourself isn’t selfish, it’s necessary.
The seven traps she breaks down? Guilt. Trauma bonds. Codependency. Fear of being the villain. Yeah, all the reasons we stay way longer than we should. And the best part? It’s not all doom and deep thinking, she gives practical tools that actually help you decide whether to mend things or walk away with peace.
I loved how this book blends psychology, creative healing, and nervous system care. It feels gentle but honest, supportive but firm, like a guide holding your hand while also nudging you toward self-respect.
If you’re stuck in a relationship that’s confusing, exhausting, or slowly shrinking you, Mend or Move On might be the sign you’ve been waiting for. Read it when you’re ready to choose peace over guilt.
Displaying 1 of 1 review