Love Cycles, Fear Cycles teaches readers the most important idea in all of couples therapy. This idea gives readers a new understanding of what’s been going wrong in their marriage – and a new way to make things right. The key idea is changing a couple’s negative cycle back into their positive cycle. Most relationships start in a positive cycle, where both people feel wonderful and respond lovingly. There are four words that describe each couple’s positive cycle – one for each person’s good feeling, and one for each person’s loving response. However, as challenges arise, people instinctively respond with some type of fight or flight. Over time, these responses spiral together into a negative cycle where each person feels bad and responds defensively. There are four words for each couple’s negative cycle – one for each person’s worst feeling, and one for each person’s defensive reaction. Many couples get trapped in their negative cycle and their relationship spirals deeper into hurt and loneliness. To have a good marriage, a couple needs to find a way out of their negative cycle and back into their positive cycle. Love Cycles, Fear Cycles teaches readers how to do that. From his decades as a couples therapist, Dr. Woodsfellow has distilled this one most-essential component of all successful marriage counseling. He now presents this to the general public in a way that is easy to understand and easy to use.
Dr. David Woodsfellow is one of the most experienced marriage therapists is the United States. His practice has been 100% exclusively couples therapy for twenty-four years. He has done 25,000 hours of couples therapy and helped more than 1,500 couples save their marriages. Over 3,200 of his colleagues have attended his professional workshops, over 600 have referred patients, and over 200 have pursued advanced training with him. Dr. Woodsfellow graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude. He received his Master of Education in Guidance and Counseling from Antioch New England. He received his Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara. He was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology from Georgia State University. His clinical psychology internship was at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California Los Angeles Medical School. Dr. Woodsfellow is a Fellow of the Georgia Psychological Association, and a Member of the American Psychological Association. Together with his wife Deborah, Dr. Woodsfellow founded The Woodsfellow Institute for Couples Therapy, which is dedicated to helping couples save their marriages and helping therapists help couples. Married 20 years, Dr. Woodsfellow has one son and two grandchildren. He lives and practices with Deborah in Atlanta, Georgia.
Deborah Woodsfellow is a relationship coach with 25 years of professional experience helping people who are struggling with challenging moments in their lives. She is a credentialed member of the International Coaching Federation. Deborah served as wartime Navy Corpsman in San Diego, California and a Physician Assistant in Atlanta, Georgia. She was awarded her Master’s in Public Health from Emory School of Public Health. Deborah blends her medical experience with her marital therapy training. Together with her husband, Deborah has co-presented couples workshops for 10 years and professional continuing education workshops for 15 years. She lives and practices in Atlanta, Georgia with David and her therapy dog, Gracie.