Building and Recognizing Healthy Relationships

Marlborough’s chapter of One Love recently welcomed Cassidy Nash, President of UCLA’s One Love chapter, for an insightful Pushing Perspectives talk on recognizing healthy and unhealthy relationship dynamics. Held as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the talk focused on empowering students to identify concerning behaviors in relationships and become active, informed bystanders.

Ms. Nash began by sharing the powerful origin story behind the One Love Foundation. The organization was founded in memory of Yeardley Love, a University of Virginia lacrosse player who was killed by her ex-boyfriend in 2010. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Love’s family, friends, and coach launched the foundation to turn heartbreak into action—raising awareness about relationship violence and helping others recognize the early signs of unhealthy behavior. “Yeardley’s death was 100% preventable had the people around her known the signs of an unhealthy relationship,” Ms. Nash explained to students. 

Throughout the presentation, students explored One Love’s “10 Signs” framework—a set of identifiable behaviors that indicate whether a relationship is healthy or unhealthy. The unhealthy signs include intensity, possessiveness, manipulation, isolation, sabotage, belittling, guilting, volatility, and betrayal. Conversely, healthy relationships demonstrate trust, honesty, independence, respect, equality, kindness, healthy conflict, comfortable pace, taking responsibility, and feeling safe. 

Ms. Nash emphasized that these indicators are not limited to romantic relationships—they also apply to friendships, teammates, and family. To bring the conversation to life, students watched clips from television shows Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria, analyzing the relationship dynamics they saw on screen and discussing how they might support friends experiencing similar situations. 

The UCLA chapter of One Love has grown to become the largest in the country, educating over 1,500 students in a single academic year. Their outreach extends beyond Westwood to local schools—like Marlborough—and community organizations. Practicing this work is familiar to Marlborough students. The Educational and Counseling Services Office and Health Educators have worked together with Marlborough’s own One Love Club to ensure these lessons are woven into our community through health and Advisory curricula. These important lessons are ongoing and Ms. Nash’s visit was able to further emphasize the value of engaging in this topic. 

“The whole point of One Love is prevention,” Ms. Nash told students. “We want to make sure bystanders can understand the signs of unhealthy relationships, have conversations, and help their friends safely exit any sort of relationship that might be unhealthy.”

As she concluded her presentation, Ms. Nash invited students to reflect on the healthy behaviors they want to incorporate into their own relationships, reinforcing One Love’s mission of creating a cycle of awareness that leads to meaningful change in how young people approach relationships. Through events like this, the Marlborough One Love Club continues to foster a culture of awareness and empathy that extends beyond the classroom, empowering students to build healthier relationships and communities both now and in their futures.

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For more information about healthy and unhealthy relationships, or if you or a friend needs support, students are encouraged to contact the Educational and Counseling Services Office or Health Educators on campus.