Some topics we will cover are:

Communication
* How to communicate your wants, needs, and feelings in ways that engender your partner’s interest and empathy rather than their defensiveness
* How to listen and ask questions in ways that help your partner feel safe and open to share with you
* How to disarm and transform negative communication (anger, criticism, sarcasm, etc) by hearing the unspoken needs behind it and addressing them
* Getting past sides: seeing through your partner’s eyes….understanding and valuing both people’s desires and feelings, and finding agreements and strategies that are mutually fulfilling
* Non-reactivity, giving the benefit of the doubt, and seeking to understand first
* Seeing them for them and not taking their realitythings personally
* Deep hHonesty and loving what is real

Self
* Understanding your emotions: where they come from and how to
functionally relate with them
* Understanding how your state affects how you see your partner
* The end of blame: taking responsibility for your own happiness
* Reconciling independence and inter-dependence;, overcoming co-dependence
* Differentiating between personal and interpersonal needs
* Identifying and working with your own patterns that cause difficulty in relationships
* Consciously directing your life in line with your deepest values and desires
* Self-wholeness as the basis for togetherness
* Embracing yourself and sharing who you really are and what you really want
*

Compatibility
* Getting clear on what you really want in a relationship and in life (to see if desires are compatible)
* Alignment of deep values
* Fitting together well
* How similar vs. how different should we be, and in it what ways
* Deal breakers
* Lifestyle factors
* Respect and admiration
* Supporting each other’s path and evolution
* Having complimentary skills and qualities

Understanding Attraction
* Newness, diversity and excitement
* Security and comfort
* Reconciling conflicting desires
* What is chemistry, how developable is it, can it last, and how important is it*
* Programmed attraction: what I “should” like
* Attraction to the forbidden and shadow desires
* Attraction to qualities we want more of in our livesWhat someone represents to us, and being attracted to qualities we want in our life more (This is a confusing statement…possibly rewrite and even create two bullets
* Balancing closeness and space: the needs for intimacy and autonomy
* Fantasies, where they come from, what they are about, and how to relate to them
* What happens when you repress your desires
* Attraction to others while in a relationship: communication, agreements, processing, etc
* Getting clear on where an attraction is coming from (biology, programming, the shadow, real compatibility, etc), when it is worth pursuing and how, what you can learn from it, etc
* Why attraction often fades and how to rekindle and strengthen attraction in a long-term relationship

Sex
* The biology of sex
* Differences between men and women
* Getting over inhibitions and opening up to new experiences
* How to communicate about sex with your partner
* Reconciling differences in desire
* Overcoming past conditioning and beliefs
* Sex in and out of relationships
* Monogamy, open relationships, infidelity, jealousy, etc
* Keeping a long term relationship sexy
* Making it safe to explore, share, and be vulnerable
* Sex and emotions
* Sex and spirituality
* Defining functional morality and ethics
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The proper care of a relationship
* Identifying what your relationship needs to stay healthy, happy, and growing…and providing how to provide those things
* Identifying things that are (potentially) damaging to your relationship and resolving them
* Investment and Return on InvestmentOI

Common areas of difficulty and how to find solutions
* Money
* Sex
* Kids/parenting
* Family and friends
* Shared responsibilities
* Values: religion, politics, etc
* Differences in lifestyle and interests
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A relationship’s full potential
* Romance and creative expressions of love
* Fun and playfulness
* Deep intimacy and real connection
* Supporting each other’s personal development, purpose, and life path
* Nurturing and care-takinging
* Affection and sweetness
* Passion, adventure, and aliveness
* Supporting each other’s freedom and growthgrowth
* An accelerator for evolution
* Growing together ongoingly