My mother was meeting Mike for the first time, after hearing about him for many years. Mike Schwass: national speaker, published author, coach, therapist, namesake for the high school Blackhawks MVP award...and quadriplegic.

Discover 3 huge barriers that inhibit couples recovering from infidelity to survive the extramarital affair and rebuild their marriage.

Have you ever felt someone else wanted you to love him or her?

Children need a mother but a man needs a woman. Here lies the biggest conflict a woman faces, even more so than the conflict between being a mother and a professional. Of course, there are many women who can conciliate both roles with ease. Unfortunately, many cannot.

Society is plagued with the man going after the woman. There are obstacles the person will have to overcome in order to have guts to make an impression on the girl and hopefully become a couple.

Don't lose the magic of your relationship. Therapist gives you 14 strategies to keep the passion and romance throughout your entire relationship. He even gives 10 more strategies for the couple on the go or for those with children.

Do the same problems keep popping up in your relationship? Do you waste precious energy on endless battles? Every relationship encounters issues and problems. To Co-Create a Conscious Relationship, you must recognize that there are both solvable and unsolvable problems and that you can live with both. Understanding the causes of the problems is the first step to living with them. This assessment addresses your understanding of the problems in your relationship, or lack thereof.

Forgetting the offense is the key factor in true forgiveness and without the conscious act of forgetting there can be no forgiveness, in addition this attitude can lead to a grudge between two people over something that could have simply been over with an apology.

Perhaps the reason it is so difficult for people to find a long-term, meaningful and satisfying relationship is that we are asking for things that we cannot even give to ourselves.

Although some relationships are mutually abusive, more frequently there is an imbalance of power in abusive relationships. While abuse may take the form of physical violence, abuse can also occur on an emotional and verbal level. Here are some steps to help you deal with an abusive partner.

How often have you given a gift to a newly married couple or to a friend at a birthday party only to never hear about the gift ever again? Wouldn’t you like to know if they liked what you gave them? Many people enjoy the moment of the occasion and tend to only think about planning and participating in the event. However remembering your guests can go a long way towards friendships and goodwill. If you’re just staring out in life, there are future events that friends and family will be an important part. There are several ways to let your guest and more importantly the gift givers know that you appreciate them thinking about you.

Believe it or not beneath the confident, silent exterior of a guy, lies a feeling or two. Ladies, we understand, are more verbal than men, and relationship experts tell us - as if it's big news - that the feminine of the genders has a need to hear words of affection. Expressions of love and frequent compliments for their beauty and character strengthen relationships with their sweethearts and build a healthy self-image.

The following outlines the steps to take to influence people. You can use these steps no matter what you are trying to change their minds about.

What if? A very powerful question. If you let it, it will not only open areas of your relationship that need exploration, it can carry into new dimension of what you have together.

There's no limit to the team efforts you can create that will both increase your intimacy, and also improve the future of your life together.