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Married since 1972, Linda and Charlie Bloom have been working with groups, individuals, couples and organizations to enhance the quality of their relationships and communication skills since 1975.\nThey both have Master\u2019s degrees in Clinical Social Work and have lectured, led seminars and provided consultation at universities and learning institutes throughout the United States as well as internationally. \nLinda and Charlie have written and published three books, Happily Ever After\u2026and 39 Other Myths about Love: Breaking Through to the Relationship of Your Dreams, Secrets of Great Marriages: Real Stories from Real Couples about Lasting Love AND Their best-selling book, 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married: Simple Lessons to Make Love Last has been translated into several languages and has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide.\nTheir organization, Bloomwork is dedicated to promoting healthy, fulfilling, and successful relationships for individuals, couples and organizations. \nThey have served as psychotherapists, marriage counselors, consultants and seminar leaders since 1975. In addition to their academic and professional training, the Blooms\u2019 expertise in the field of relationships stems from experience in the crucible of their own committed partnership of over 45 years.\nGuiding Principle, Quote or Mantra\nCharlie \u2013 \u201cThis too shall pass.\u201d\xa0 Which is both the good news and the bad news.\nWhatever difficulty you are dealing with will pass, and the relationship you are in is also temporary so instead of missing a minute of the precious connection you have,\xa0 just be open and honest and considerate and vulnerable with your partner.\nRemembering this will help to keep things in perspective.\nWhen You Tripped Up \nLinda \u2013 At one point Charlie had a corporate job that kept him away from home quite a bit when their children were small and she was pretty upset about it.\nCharlie loved the job and was learning so much and had a great opportunity to be in service that it was his dream job.\xa0 But it was really having an impact on the family.\nAt the time they were both caught in this myth that you have to get it off your chest and express yourself.\xa0 And as a result they had some humdinger fights during this time. \nIt was already a difficult time, but not having good conflict management skills made it more so.\nThey learned that there is a way to tell the truth about what you\u2019re feeling and what you\u2019re needing and leave out all the manipulations and blame and judgement that leads to so much trouble.\nProudest moment in partnership \nLinda \u2013 When Charlie resigned from his corporate job and they were healing their relationship that had been on starvation rations for a long time, they went to the beach.\xa0\nThey were in a co-creative mode as they were brainstorming a course right there at the edge of the water.\nShe gets a smile on her face when she thinks about how in sync they were, how respectful they were of each other\u2019s ideas and kept building on each other\u2019s ideas.\nAnd this co-creative flow is still a frequent part of their relationship today.\nCharlie \u2013 When he left his corporate job it was because of the very clear the toll it was taking on their marriage, on the family and on his own soul.\nHe was also aware he was leaving an environment that had been very pleasurable and he was grieving the sense of purpose he had in this work.\xa0 This led to a depression that lasted several months.\nLike many men, he had tied in a lot of his worth to what he could provide to his family and other people.\xa0 And for the first time in his adult life he was totally unproductive.\xa0 He felt like he was a burden to the whole family and to Linda.\nOne day he talked with Linda about all this and said how sorry he was and that he felt totally useless in that moment.\xa0 And he really had no idea when or if this wou...