Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Lasting Love

by Linda Carroll, Sam Keen (Foreword by)

Overview

In Love Cycles, veteran couples therapist Linda Carroll presents a groundbreaking model of the five natural stages of romantic relationships — the Merge, Doubt and Denial, Disillusionment, Decision, and Wholehearted Love — and a guide for navigating through them toward lasting love. Love Cycles helps readers understand where they are in the cycle of their relationship and provides a clear strategy for how to stay happy and committed, even in difficult times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608683000
Publisher:	New World Library
Publication date:	09/02/2014
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Linda Carroll, MS, has worked as a couples therapist for over thirty years. She teaches workshops throughout the United States and also at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico, several times a year. Linda lives in Corvallis, Oregon, with her veterinarian husband and their Jack Russell terrier. She has five children and ten grandchildren.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Sam Keen
Introduction

Chapter 1. The Merge
Chapter 2. Doubt and Denial
Chapter 3. Six Essential Skills
Chapter 4. Disillusionment
Chapter 5. Seven Normal Troubles
Chapter 6. Decision
Chapter 7. Couple on the Edge
Chapter 8. Our Sexual Cycles
Chapter 9. The Fine Art of Differentiation
Chapter 10. Wholehearted Loving: The Barriers
Chapter 11. Wholehearted Loving: The Bridges
Chapter 12. Love Is an Inside Job

What Love Stage Are You In?: A Quick Quiz by Pepper Schwartz and Linda Carroll
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

07/07/2014
In this dynamic guide to developing healthy relationships, Carroll, a couple’s therapist, elaborates on the development of relationships by examining a common, fundamental problem among them—humans want to form connections but also maintain their independence. As a relationship grows, each partner journeys through the five cycles of love: the merge, when each partner is wholly obsessed with the wonder and delight of the new relationship; doubt and denial, when the rational mind attempts to point out flaws with the other partner while the heart still clings to the unrealistic perfect relationship; disillusionment, in which conflicts have grown; decision, when the partners are forced to come to terms with the realities of their not-perfect partners and make a decision about the future; and wholehearted loving, in which the two partners have decided to work hard on the relationship and embrace all its joys and difficulties. Carroll’s interpretation is highly relatable: it is at once a relationship book as well as a sort of self-help. Readers looking to experience a rewarding relationship will also come away with a better sense of self. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

This beautifully written book is replete with valuable information. . . . We recommend it to all couples.”
— Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, authors of Making Marriage Simple

“An incredible book . . . It should be required reading for everyone who plans to fall in love and wants to stay in love!”
— Arielle Ford, author of The Soulmate Secret

“Sure to inspire and enlighten anyone who seeks to enhance the quality of their relationships. . . abundant with great guidelines geared to the challenge of creating enduring love.”
— Linda Bloom, coauthor of 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married

“Linda Carroll’s wisdom is so direct and radiant, it has inspired me to tend my relationship in a deeper, more mature way.”
— Jennifer Louden, author of The Life Organizer

“A helpful and wise guide for people who want to make their love last. The author understands the stages as well as the pitfalls of love, honoring the former and explaining how to navigate the latter.”
— Frederic Luskin, PhD, author of Forgive for Good

“Linda Carroll deeply understands the challenges and potential of each stage and will help you normalize, survive, and master this journey.”
— Janis Abrahms Spring, PhD, author of After the Affair

“[A] dynamic guide to developing healthy relationships. . . Carroll’s interpretation is highly relatable: it is at once a relationship book as well as a sort of self-help. Readers looking to experience a rewarding relationship will also come away with a better sense of self.”
— Publishers Weekly

“You cannot help but be awed at the clarity and power of Linda Carroll’s observations on beginning, maintaining, and repairing profound relationships. We all need this book, to read once for perspective, and then to keep reading for guidance.”
— Pepper Schwartz, PhD, author of nineteen books on sex and relationships

“A truly compassionate manual on growing relationships while growing ourselves.”
— Marilyn Mason, author of Facing Shame

“A rare and exceptional book that offers a wise and hopeful map of the geography of love.”
— Sam Keen, author of Fire in the Belly and Hymns to an Unknown God

From the Publisher