Review of Love That Works
By Jim Fleckenstein
A deceptively easy read, Jim Fleckenstein’s thought-provoking book Love That Works provides practical, bite-sized solutions for relationship challenges. Grounded in research and Fleckenstein’s decades of experience as a relationship coach, Love That Works introduces affirmative intimacy and then details how to create a safe space, structuring dialog, using mindful reason, and differentiating between healthy self and unhealthy enmeshment. By building positive regard for each other, developing communication skills, using conversational techniques that can help a difficult conversation go more smoothly, and examining individual behaviors and beliefs to build a healthy sense of self, people in relationships can address problematic interactions and unpack some of their relationship baggage. This is a useful for book for not only romantic relationships (its primary audience), but these tools would be helpful in speaking with family members, friends, co-workers, and anyone else.