Learn Essential Communication
Skills for Lesbian Couples
in 6 Weeks
The Art of Wholehearted Communication by Michele O’Mara, LCSW, PhD
“My wife and I feel like we’ve made more progress taking your course than 3 years of couples counseling.”
– Course Participant
Let’s face it, intimate, honest, and accurate communication skills are not intuitive, they are learned.
If you struggle to find the words to say what you mean or find yourself comin’ into a conversation a little too hot, you are not alone.
Communication is not as simple as finding the right words to convey what you think and feel; it is a full-body, wholehearted experience that requires self-awareness, emotional regulation, and a conscious intent to know and be known.
But don’t fret. You, too, can learn to communicate effectively!
Whether you are a single lesbian, hoping to get your next relationship right, or you are currently partnered and recognize it’s time to up your communication game, we’ve got you.
Intimate communication skills (aka Wholehearted Communication) is a dance between two nervous systems. For the dance of communication to be effective, it requires conscious awareness of how you are feeling and what you need. With greater self-awareness and the skills to communicate more effectively, you can develop a dance of interaction that creates genuine, intimate connections.
Wholehearted Communication Helps You:
- Identify your needs more accurately
- Communicate your thoughts, feelings, and needs more effectively
- Reduce misunderstandings
- Create more enjoyment and less negativity
- Say what you mean and mean what you say
The sessions show us how this whole world of our nervous systems has influenced our lives in so many ways that were completely hidden to us, in spite of the fact that we’ve both been in counselling and studied things like non-violent communication for years! We just want to say how much we both appreciate the knowledge you brought together for this course and, more importantly, for the way you delivered it.
– Bonnie and Natasha, Canada
Most lesbian couples do not need counseling, they need better communication skills.
That is why I created an affordable and accessible online course specifically for lesbians called, The Art of Wholehearted Communication.
This course combines the Imago Relationship Theory, Nonviolent Communication, the Polyvagal Theory and Self-Regulation, Mindfulness, the Gottman Method, and Emotionally Focused Therapy. The course includes six one-hour units organized into a novel and effective process that promotes understanding and connection while reducing the risk of re-escalation.
Effective communication is a skill, and one that most of us are never taught.
In session after session, lesbian couples express frustration with their negative patterns of communication that keep them looping in circles and misunderstanding one another. This cycle becomes discouraging and leads to a feeling of hopelessness. Often, one partner expresses her frustration loudly, repeatedly, and with a lot of passion, while the other tends to withdraw, retreat and go silent. This leaves one partner feeling rejected, unheard, and unimportant and the other feeling overwhelmed, silenced, and numb. Both partners feel powerless.
If this is you, there is a way out of this negative loop.
What You Will Learn in This Course
✔️ The Fundamentals of Listening
Upgrade and expand your communication toolbox with the fundamentals that every couple needs for a healthy, effective relationship.
✔️ How to Be Heard (becoming hearable)
Identify the blindspots in your communication that prevent you from being accurately heard and understood.
✔️ A Fail-Proof Roadmap for Effective Communication
Learn the principles of Wholehearted Communication and how to apply them in your relationship to create new patterns of communication
✔️ Barriers to Communication and How to Overcome Them
By focusing on the dance as the problem, and not one another, you can uncover the ineffective patterns in your communication and introduce new and improved habits of interaction.
✔️ How to disagree without fighting
Learn how to communicate as teammates instead of opponents.
✔️ How to speak with more honesty and openness
Learn how to access, understand and communicate your thoughts, feelings, and needs with clarity and directness.
★★★★★
Michele is an excellent coach and facilitator. Not only is the material helpful but she “walks her talk” (demonstrated with her partner). I’d recommend this course to anyone. It’s a user-friendly and practical course. Her style is also engaging: she has a great sense of humor, has sound applications, and provides a safe space.
– Susan L, North Carolina
★★★★★
It was outstanding. Very clearly taught with excellent handouts – specific, sharp looking. Flowed well from concept to concept. Really liked the teaching format. Exercises were very beneficial. I would highly recommend it.
– Tamara W., Saint Clare, MI
★★★★★
It was amazing!
So insightful and especially validating to see that we’re not the only ones who struggle the way we do with communication, don’t change your personable and welcoming demeanor.
– K&M, Huntsville, AL
Specifically for Lesbian, Queer & Non-Binary (non-male) Folx
Unlike most relationship resources, this course is made by a lesbian psychotherapist and relationship coach specifically for lesbians. This course is inclusive of all female and non-binary/genderqueer couples (non-male-identified).
Supportive Community of Lesbian Couples
Continue learning from other couples by joining the Art of Wholehearted Communication private network. You will be joined by your classmates, as well as couples from previous courses.
6 Weekly Live Online Video Classes
All classes will be held on zoom.us. You will be provided a link to join the class upon registration. Couples can log on from the same or different locations to join the course.
Audio Recording of Classes
All classes will be held on zoom.us. You will be provided a link to join the class upon registration. Couples can log on from the same or different locations to join the course.
71 Page Communication PDF Workbook
Class participants will receive a 71+ page workbook (pdf) with information and exercises for use during the 6-week Wholehearted Communication class.
WHAT QUALIFIES MICHELE O’MARA, PHD TO TEACH THIS COURSE?
- Certified Imago Therapist, Harville Hendrix (2005)
- Author, Just Ask! 1,000 Questions to Grow Your Relationship (2012)
- Ph.D. Clinical Sexology (2012)
- ️Trained on All 3 Levels, Gottman Method, John Gottman (2014)
- ️Trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy, Sue Johnson (2015)
- ️Certified Discernment Counselor (2015)
- ️Author of “Just Ask, 1,000 Questions to Grow Your Relationship” (2012)
- ️M.S.W. (1992)
- ️ Lesbian mom and wife
Course Cost
Registration is $187. You are welcome to join the class with or without a partner. All sessions are recorded for your convenience.
NEXT CLASS STARTS JUNE 15, 2023
6) THURSDAYS 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
6 pm CT | 5 pm MT | 4 pm PT
JUNE 15, 22, 29
JULY 6, 13, 20
Talking seems to worsen things, so you don’t talk as much.
Everything seems more fragile, sensitive, explosive, and distant.
You miss her. You wonder if she misses you, too. Your emotions dance between anger and sadness, resentment and guilt, frustration, and longing.
Confusion replaces confidence. Sensitivity replaces understanding.
The uncertainty is painful, scary and it leaves you feeling unsure of what to do.
And that’s why you’re here, reading about lesbian relationship communication. Right?
You want to feel the way you did when you first fell in love with her.
The louder she gets, the quieter you become; or the quieter you become, the louder she gets.
Either way, it’s not working.
You’ve tried weekly counseling. Maybe you’ve been to a couple of different counselors, finding it hard to click with them.
You leave sessions more frustrated than you felt going into them. Yet, you keep going because at least there’s some communication, even if it’s not great.
Misunderstandings are happening more often.
Why not try something new? Develop Wholehearted Communication Skills.
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