Fight Less, Love More: 5-Minute Conversations to Change Your Relationship without Blowing Up or Giving In »

LAURIE PUHN, JD, is a Harvard-trained attorney/mediator who maintains a private practice in Manhattan. She appears as a communication expert on numerous national TV and radio shows.

Harvard-trained lawyer and family and divorce mediator Laurie Puhn shows busy couples how to stop fighting and start communicating

It happens every day—a simple exchange or harmless response turns into a heated debate or worse, an all-out battle. Hard-pressed for quality time with our partners and spouses, it’s easy to fall into a poor communication routine. How can two people who love one another so much have such difficulty talking to one another?

Drawing on her expertise in legal mediation and conflict resolution, Puhn’s fresh approach gives simple, 5-minute conversations that will instantly improve communication—as well as the quality of relationships. In Fight Less, Love More, learn how to identify and conquer the poor verbal habits, instinctive responses, and emotional reasoning that can cloud judgment and ultimately lead to the deterioration of otherwise healthy relationships.

Love is conditional, argues Puhn, and for love to survive, couples don’t need to talk more—they need to talk better. With exercises, examples, and sample scripts, Puhn’s simple 5-minute strategies promise immediate results and provide long-lasting communication skills that couples can confidently employ when faced with future conflict.

Publishers Weekly

As a Harvard-trained family and divorce lawyer and couples mediator, Puhn is extremely well qualified to speak to communication difficulties in relationships. In this book, she outlines tactics to improve communication, avoid unhealthy behaviors, and better appreciate your partner that are simple to implement, remarkably effective, and will benefit couples in relationships troubled and healthy alike. With advice that is nonjudgmental, extremely efficient, and clearly understandable, Puhn covers all aspects of romantic relationships, from problems like infidelity to boundaries giving couples of every strip something of benefit. Sections, chapters, and goals are clearly delineated and well positioned, with research bubbles (adultery is often a consequence of believing that one's marriage is already in trouble) and quotes from the familiar (Oprah) to the refreshing (Churchill) make for a light, easy read. Eschewing frustrating vagaries, sweeping generalizations, and gender-based assumptions, Puhn's extremely specific guide focuses on simple, rational solutions that primarily revolve around maintaining respect for one's partner. Readers will gain a great deal from her contribution to the genre. (Oct.)