About David
My father is an Auschwitz survivor and my mother was a frustrated and angry stay at home mum,
To try and gain my parents approval, I trained as a medical Doctor, qualifying from the University of London in 1984.
Before leaving medicine, I spent time in various disciplines including psychiatry and aviation medicine. I then set up docleaf, a leading Crisis Management and Trauma Psychology Consultancy.
I have trained in NLP and as a hypnotherapist. I am a qualified psychotherapist and counsellor. I have also have an advanced postgraduate diploma in Leadership Coaching.
My own experience of developing limerence in 2010 led me to set up limerence.net which includes a support forum to help those that have been impacted.
My other passion in life apart from my relationship work is helping men become the best versions of themselves. I give my time and experience to the ManKind Project charity which helps men live their lives with more integrity, honesty and responsibility.
Outside of work I enjoy creating things. We renovated a large dilapidated farmhouse and I then built an airplane in the garage. I also love to travel. I’ve been lucky to get to 95 countries so far.
About Ruth
Caring and helping is in my family. My mother, sister and aunt were all nurses. I trained as a nurse where I developed my interest in helping those impacted by loss and bereavement.
After leaving nursing, I climbed the corporate ladder before becoming a full time mother, raising two daughters.
During this time, I also helped David set up work on business development and running training workshops.
I am qualified as a therapist with a diploma in therapeutic counselling. I also hold a postgraduate diploma in psychosynthesis psychology and advanced postgraduate diploma in leadership coaching.
My interest in bereavement comes from having worked at a hospice as part of their spiritual and psychology care team. I have facilitated woman’s groups for survivors of sexual and domestic abuse and violence.
With working in a rehabilitation centre for a number of years, I have extensive expereince of many types of addictions and understand this condition well
A passion of mine is a keen interest in meditation and mindfulness having spent many years participating and co-facilitating groups.
How we met
David and Ruth met at the doctor’s leaving party of his first medical rotation as a newly qualified medic in 1984. David passed Ruth on the way to the restroom as she was exiting. In that moment, he was captivated by her so stopped her and started chatting. As they say, the rest is history.
Their three decade marriage, like most enduring long term relationships has been through its own ups and downs. They have written about their most challenging time. David’s story can be read here and Ruth’s story, here.
These experiences led them to both become more curious about relationships and helped forge their interest in relationships and better understanding the dynamics of what makes long term relationships work.
LoveRelations was born out of their combined interests and for over a decade has been helping both individuals and couples globally in creating more meaningful, loving, and satisfying relationships.
Regardless of our qualifications and life experience, its important to add that we have between us undertaken over 1,000 hours of our own personal and group psychotherapy and other deep psychological work. Our belief is we need to look inwards and touch our souls. It is there that we find true connection to ourselves and others