Is there anyway I can change a M:N table dependency into a 1:N dependency

I currently have two tables: EmailConfig and AccountOwner. They have a many-to-many relationship because multiple owners can have multiple email configurations, and vice versa. Since I can’t directly join them, I know I need a new table called EmailConfigOwner as a join table. Is there any alternative approach? If not, how do I properly create an associative table?