A Different Way of Understanding 
Romantic Love

Relationship information is everywhere: advice, opinions, tips, theories, strategies, and endless explanations of what couples should do. But what is it all based on?

LoveBonds starts with a more fundamental question: What is a romantic relationship actually for?

Relationships take know-how, not work. LoveBonds explores romantic relationships from that starting point, looking beneath familiar advice and conventional wisdom to understand how romantic bonding operates, what strengthens it, what disrupts it, and what allows it to endure.

Romantic relationships aren't sustained by thinking harder or trying harder. They depend on understanding the nature of the bond—and the embodied, visceral experiences that strengthen or disrupt it.

The publication is grounded in The Intimacy Bond™, my clinical framework for understanding romantic love as a mutual protective bond. It brings together emotional intimacy and sexual expression and examines the dynamic interplay between them.

Here, you’ll find clinically informed writing on attachment, intimacy, attraction, affairs and betrayal, conflict, repair, narcissistic relationship dynamics, and the forces that shape long-term love.

Not advice for advice’s sake. Not quick fixes. Just a closer look at romantic relationships—and clearer ways to understand them.

— Terri DiMatteo, LPC

Welcome.