As a therapist in private practice who specializes in working with couples and an EFT trained therapist, I have found Dr. Johnson's new book an easy read as well as an effective tool for couples to work through together.

Dr. Johnson has said that taking EFT and putting it into a framework that couples can use together on their own was very challenging to do. This book is a testimony to her hard work, one couples can benefit from, if they read and do the exercises.

In the book, Dr. Johnson takes the readers through a straight forward explanation of the negative cycles most couples find themselves in. She handles the explanation of adult-attachment brilliantly and relates the concept to what happens in relationships when we get our feelings hurt. Next she has the reader re-work a difficult moment in their relationship and through this demonstrates her principals and some key interventions that are used in therapy with an EFT therapist.

While buying and reading the book along with completing the exercises may not be equal to actually working through therapy with an EFT therapist, for those wanting a solid relationship check up or tune up, or those wanting to work on their own, Hold Me Tight is an easy and effective way to go. If you are looking for a self help couples book, you won't be disappointed.

She provided a program to growth and help couples develop the relationship, through her seven topics.
She guides people in exploring emotions and pain, and helping couples create new communication. Also recommend other book: I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't is the right math of this matter.

She provided a program to growth and help couples develop the relationship, through her seven topics.
She guides people in exploring emotions and pain, and helping couples create new communication. Also recommend other book: I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't is the right math of this matter.

As a therapist in private practice who specializes in working with couples and an EFT trained therapist, I have found Dr. Johnson's new book an easy read as well as an effective tool for couples to work through together.

Dr. Johnson has said that taking EFT and putting it into a framework that couples can use together on their own was very challenging to do. This book is a testimony to her hard work, one couples can benefit from, if they read and do the exercises.

In the book, Dr. Johnson takes the readers through a straight forward explanation of the negative cycles most couples find themselves in. She handles the explanation of adult-attachment brilliantly and relates the concept to what happens in relationships when we get our feelings hurt. Next she has the reader re-work a difficult moment in their relationship and through this demonstrates her principals and some key interventions that are used in therapy with an EFT therapist.

While buying and reading the book along with completing the exercises may not be equal to actually working through therapy with an EFT therapist, for those wanting a solid relationship check up or tune up, or those wanting to work on their own, Hold Me Tight is an easy and effective way to go. If you are looking for a self help couples book, you won't be disappointed.

As a therapist in private practice who specializes in working with couples and an EFT trained therapist, I have found Dr. Johnson's new book an easy read as well as an effective tool for couples to work through together.

Dr. Johnson has said that taking EFT and putting it into a framework that couples can use together on their own was very challenging to do. This book is a testimony to her hard work, one couples can benefit from, if they read and do the exercises.

In the book, Dr. Johnson takes the readers through a straight forward explanation of the negative cycles most couples find themselves in. She handles the explanation of adult-attachment brilliantly and relates the concept to what happens in relationships when we get our feelings hurt. Next she has the reader re-work a difficult moment in their relationship and through this demonstrates her principals and some key interventions that are used in therapy with an EFT therapist.

While buying and reading the book along with completing the exercises may not be equal to actually working through therapy with an EFT therapist, for those wanting a solid relationship check up or tune up, or those wanting to work on their own, Hold Me Tight is an easy and effective way to go. If you are looking for a self help couples book, you won't be disappointed.

Hold Me Tight is an entertaining and enjoyable read. Johnson offers couples in couples counseling an adjunctive support system in addition to the therapy hour.In addition to being immensely helpful to couples. It is a book that all couples - and all people who want to be part of a couple - should read. The perfect companion for this book is I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

This book is easy to read, and most will recognise themselves more than once in the featured couples. The author has developed a very effective method for dealing with problems that haunt most couples. There are many "conversations" to have with your partner to excercise the skills outlined in the book. I highly recommend to any couple, especially those that have the same arguments over and over that never get resolved.

I've been reading a number of books on couples counseling as part of working through longstanding problems that have emerged in an 8-year relationship. This is by far the best book on the dynamics of adult pair-bonded love (attachment bonds to use Johnson's term) that I have ever read. I'm buying extra copies to give friends who I know are having problems in their couple-relationships. This should be required first reading for every couple in trouble. Maybe even required reading for anyone considering a committed relationship in or out of societally defined marriage.

I have been a couples therapist for thirty years and have wanted a book I could recommend to couples to help guide their recovery. Here is a book for couples that I can recommend without reservation. Hold Me Tight is intelligent, insightful and helps couples get to the core issues of their relationship.

Susan Johnson gets right to the heart of the matter when she tells us that accessibility, responsiveness and engagement in the emotional bond are most important to a couple's happiness and satisfaction. Attachment theory is her guide in understanding how partners love and why they fight. She explains that we are wired in for connection; we seek it, we flourish when we have it, we suffer when we don't have it, we fight for it when it is pulled away and we grieve when it is gone. From years of working with couples and conducting research studies on what actually helps couples recover, Susan Johnson has designed a program of discovery and growth to help couples develop stronger bonds. Through her seven conversations, she guides couples through understanding and untangling their negative cycles of interaction, exploring and expressing underlying emotions and pain, and helping couples create new, confiding dialogues. Hold Me Tight offers couples sound and research-proven ways to understand their distress and sets them on a path to recovery.

In addition to being immensely helpful to couples, Hold Me Tight is an entertaining and enjoyable read. It is a book that all couples - and all people who want to be part of a couple - should read.

Susan Johnson is a brilliant clinician, researcher and teacher and all three show through in her book. Thank you, Susan Johnson, for your remarkable book. Douglas Tilley

Touching, helpful, heart-warming and practical, Dr. Johnson has at last put words to the latest research into happy marriages for the average person. Reading it is not intellectual: each time I pick up this book I feel like I could not only understand my spouse's behavior in a deeper way, but also my own.

I can't recommend this book enough. I read the first few chapters, bought three more copies (one for my spouse), and gave the other two to friends who were in stressful moments with their own spouses. One couple now reads from the book to one another each night, and (like I did) recommended it to two other couples before they got through the first 3 chapters. The other couple bought a 2nd copy so that they could each have it available to them every day, and are now each avidly reading on their morning commutes.

In short, readers seem to find Dr. Johnson's book incredibly helpful, almost immediately. Dr. Johnson's clear, from-the-heart style seems immediately comprehensible to anyone who has ever been in love, or wanted to be. And rest of the book was even better than the beginning.

You know you've got a winner when you give a book to two friends, who each immediately give it to their two friends, and so on. Don't suffer needlessly: give this one a try for under $20!

I would recommend anything Dr. Johnson writes as her emphasis on emotions and attachment is the best theoretical standard so far. Though this book is written for the public, I think it is a bit long winded in places and not clear enough in others. Some of the theory of attachment for adults and cases illustrations need beefing up: more examples as to how attachment problems evidence themselves in marriages and secondly, longer case presentations to give you a more complete feel of the application and techniques.

The best book to give couples in or out of therapy is John Gottman's The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert (Paperback). It is well organized, reader friendly, and a great teaching aide to couples therpy. It is itself a class in what makes marriages work.

The husband read the book -- said that he and his wife had tried,
unsuccessfully, a lot of couples therapy, and thought EFT might be the
answer. At the first session, the wife had Hold Me Tight peeking out of
her purse. She said, "Sue Johnson must have read my diary." He said he was worried. "It looks worse because she's gone into the next stage -- she's stopped complaining." With very little prompting from me, the two then proceeded to let me know their negative dance. "The second chapter really said it." "We poke each other's raw spots." They delved into their attachment injury which happened "a week after we got married, years ago, and part of our communication ever since." They continued to work at the heart of it for the rest of the hour as if they'd been working this way for many sessions. As a couples therapist, I got the power of this book to accelerate the work in a way that I had not experienced before!

This is a great book for anyone in a relationship, whether troubled or not. Cheaper than a therapist, too!

Hold Me Tight, Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love

By Dr. Sue Johnson

A Layman's Viewpoint

This is an imminently readable book for anyone who is in love, been in love or wants to be. If you are in love, but puzzled by it, this book will help you understand the puzzle. If you have been in love, and wondered what happened, you might find the "what", here. If you want to be, now you will know what to look for. And if you are in love, and everything is fine, you will learn how to keep it that way.

The insights traverse the conceptual aspects of love through the personal, interpersonal and societal levels, and melds the rational and emotional influences of loving relationships smoothly. Dr. Johnson writes clearly and avoids the linguistic sandtraps and overly clinical mumbo-jumbo that usually arises when the simple word 'love" is talked about too much at one time. The writing is for married couples, all manner of couples thinking about marriage or partnership, families and those larger groups in society who care for and tend to one another. The glossary at the back is perfect for those of us who do not "speak the language" of therapists. The practices and exercises are simple and direct. Dr. Johnson says that these may done without professional help but one cannot help but think that they would be more effective with some objective, trained guidance.

Go it alone or go with someone, but, in any case, GO.
Ivan Hentschel
Running Buffalo Woodworks
[...]

There is no end to the relationship books out there, but this one is definitely different. Dr. Johnson gives us the science behind the feeling and then helps us unravel how we get stuck in aloneness and fear. Being in a loving relationship should not feel so separate. Our fast paced,independent and competitive based society leads us into developing entitlement that heightens our sense of being hurt and abandoned. Then self-perpetuating interlocking loops of pursue and defend; demand and withdraw separate us even more from the one we long to feel safe and close to. Thank you Sue Johnson, for publishing the map that guides us through this maze of confused emotions. Thank you from all my clients, my family and myself. Each of my married children have received gifts of this book. I keep mine close at hand. My husband thanks you, too. T. Livingston. MFT

Hold Me Tight teaches couples how to hear their partner's deepest concerns, "are you there for me", "am I really important to you", "is our relationship secure and solid" when those concerns are expressed through criticism or content. It reminds partner's that all communications are attempts to connect, no matter how badly delivered. In this way, Susan Johnson teaches couples to read below the surface of a complaint down to the attachment need being expressed underneath. When attachment needs can be faced and processed directly, couples feel closer. Johnson offers couples in couples counseling an adjunctive support system in addition to the therapy hour. Hold Me Tight is also an excellent resource for couples working things out on their own. It provides a clear and solid guideline for repairing hurt and restoring connection. I am recommending it to the couples in my practice, and the reports coming back about how helpful and transformative Johnson's approach is have been glowing!

For years I have longed for this book, and it is finally here!

Dr. Johnson, the most brilliant mind in field of couple therapy, has laid out the process of building a strong, happy, secure relationship with wit, charm and passion. This book will strengthen couples, save marriages, and bring peace to homes throughout the world. Read this book - you will not be sorry!

i do not have the words to convey how much this book can help anyone who is looking for self-help in their life ,whether you are in a crisis trying to understand a lover, a parent ,your self or your spouse this book will help .

I've been following Dr. Johnson's work for a long time and this book captures, in an easy to read way, compelling ideas about adult love, attachment and creating secure relationships.

Following a fascinating overview of research on attachment theory Johnson puts it all to life with stories and examples of how and why relationships have difficulty and how they can get better. As the leading marriage therapist in the world, who would know better how to help us through to good results? Dr. Johnson's experience is vital, obvious and best of all, based on research.

Johnson has a warm and personal style. The work flows and is engaging. Be prepared to not only rethink your relationship as you read but then do the included 'homework' and have it help you improve, or change, your relationship/s into the safe haven you've always wanted.

I've put Johnson's work to the test, through Emotionally Focused Therapy, and have never been happier!

This book makes a great read and a great gift.

Great work Dr. Johnson!

Dr.Susan Johnson has hit the relationship ball out of the ballpark with this groundbreaking introduction to attachment, couples, and relationships. Until now this Canadian based academician has been confined to professional audiences world wide, where she is acknowledged as the finest Marriage and Family Therapist of this era. Now through "Hold Me Tight', the public at large can begin their attachment to her brilliant, but easy to grasp, explanations of what makes love stick. Articulate, honest and thought provoking, Dr.Johnson provides just the right literary medicine for not only ailing relationships, but importantly, for those who have love and want to hold on to it.

I've read all the relationship books, even the ones by the authors whose quotes appear on this cover, and I can say with complete conviction that this is by far the best of the lot. Dr. Sue Johnson's warm, authoritative, and reassuring tone sets the stage for a whole lot of incredibly useful advice. The book gives you a new way to view your relationship and the tools to improve it, whether it needs improving or not! Her form of couples therapy is apparently one of the very few to be proven to work, and that's really the bottom line. Do yourself and your partner a big favor and buy this book! I highly recommend it.