Linda Carroll’s first book, Love Cycles, describes the five stages of intimate relationships in detail, illuminating the behaviors associated with each stage and strategies for successfully navigating them. This companion workbook, Love Skills, is a practical guide to creating and maintaining a loving relationship. Exercises, activities, self-assessments, and other concrete tools allow readers to understand where they are in their relationship. Carroll addresses such thorny issues as the loss of sexual energy, why what once seemed endearing is now annoying, and the many ways that family history and personality type can wreak havoc in relationships. Her well-researched practices help keep love alive in the midst of seemingly intractable differences, and specific, effective solutions to couples’ most common struggles provide a clear map for moving forward. Most important, Carroll’s couple-tested techniques allow readers to deal with conflict without losing connection, and show that conflict, when navigated properly, can lead to renewed closeness and unprecedented connection.
“In Love Skills Linda Carroll provides the map, compass, and survival kit for anyone journeying through the labyrinth of romantic love.”
— Alicia Muñoz, LPC, author of No More Fighting
“In a landscape of rare humility and honesty, Linda Carroll weaves together lived experience and clinical wisdom into an exceptional and valuable guidebook on the intricacies of love that is both enlightening and beautifully written.”
— Peter Yarrow, Peter, Paul and Mary
“We recommend this guide . . . to all couples who want a clear path through the forest of challenges to the sunshine of a thriving relationship.”
— Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, coauthors of Getting the Love You Want and Making Marriage Simple
“These are love skills to be learned — and there is no one better qualified to teach them than Linda Carroll.”
— Pepper Schwartz, PhD, author of nineteen books on sex and relationships
“A breakthrough among the confusing plethora of relationship books, this book is truly important — realistic, deeply personal, and packed not just with the wisdom of a seasoned therapist, but with real, practical tools.”
— Gleb Tsipursky, PhD, author of Never Go with Your Gut and The Blindspots Between Us
“Psychologist, couples therapist, and well-known author Linda Carroll combines her deep insight into relationships with an informative and interactive approach. The hands-on and heartfelt questionnaires allow helpful realizations to float to the surface of the reader’s consciousness. In sharing the answers with a partner, couples will reach deeper understanding, healing, and compassion for each other.”
— Ann Gadd, author of Sex and the Enneagram and The Enneagram of Eating
“As a millennial, I’ve observed that everyone tells us to love, but they never tell us how. Love Skills is a candid, readable, and concrete dive into not just how to find love but how to stay in it once you’ve arrived.”
— Zak Dychtwald, author of Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World