Understanding Your Relational Stress Pattern

A brief reflection tool designed to help you recognize how you tend to respond during relational stress.

12 questions | Approximately 2 minutes to complete

Developed by Dr. Boyce, a relational intelligence specialist grounded in trauma science and nervous system regulation, this assessment helps identify common relational stress responses that may appear during moments of tension or emotionally charged conversations. 

When stress increases in relationships, people often fall into familiar response patterns. These responses are not character flaws. They are adaptive nervous system strategies shaped by relational experiences.

Understanding these patterns can offer insight into how stress may influence communication, conflict, and emotional safety in relationships.

How It Works

• Read each question and choose the response that most closely reflects your typical reaction during relational tension.

• Select the option that best reflects your natural response, even if more than one feels familiar.

• Choose the response that feels most natural rather than what you believe you “should” do.

• There are no right or wrong answers.

• At the end, you will receive a brief overview of your primary and secondary relational stress patterns and how they may appear in relationships.