“My therapist’s exercise might seem out of the box, maybe even a little mean to some, but it did exactly what she had hoped.”

Simone is a writer and host of the podcast “We’re Never Doing This Again.” She is a nationally syndicated relationship columnist for the Toronto Sun, and her words and photographs have appeared in Apartment Therapy, Business Insider, The New York Times, The Washington Post and more. You can follow her on X and Instagram at @simone_paget.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost in June 2026.