Many lesbians say they have never dated. Instead, as soon as we feel a mutual spark, we often start a relationship. This leads to both an extremely intense limerence period, and a much faster end to this neurochemical honeymoon. Limerence in lesbian relationships often drops dramatically at around three months, leading to intense trigger cascades which many young relationships don't survive. 

While heterosexual women often expect their non-sexual girlfriends to be their primary source of emotional intimacy, women in lesbian relationships tend to seek both kinds of intimacy in the same person, placing far more pressure on romantic relationships.  

Since women tend to have easier access to emotions, female-female couples experience much deeper emotional bonding and many more triggers. Attachment is far more complex in lesbian relationships -- which means it takes more skill for our relationships to survive. 

Women's ability and willingness to communicate about emotions has a downside in lesbian relationships: when we lack self-responsibility and emotional regulation skills, it can lead to endless, draining "lesbian processing." 

Homophobia impacts us. Being in the closet, or facing family rejection or job discrimination, add levels of stress to our relationships that heterosexual couples never face. Statistically, female-female couples also have more children and less income, creating further stressors. Of course, this also means that substance abuse, depression and anxiety are high in our community. 

Many factors combine to make it hard for lesbian couples to create long-term sexual fulfillment. Most lesbian relationships include at least one, and often two survivors of sexual trauma. Female sexuality, including arousal and orgasm, are complex, and homophobia and misogyny don't prepare us for open, joyful, shame-free exploration. Many women are wired more for responsiveness than initiation, which is one factor that contributes to "lesbian bed death." Since both partners may experience a steep decline in libido after menopause, lesbian relationships have a double challenge to weather. 

In heterosexual relationships, the female partner initiates the majority of divorces. Lesbians are women squared, resulting in much higher breakup and divorce rates than other couples.

Since emotional bonding is so intense, lesbian breakups are especially traumatic. Many lesbian couples go through multiple reconciliations and partings, and/or struggle to move on, even from very brief relationships.

Once a woman has been through this cycle multiple times, she tends to become wary of intimate relationships. Frequently, the only thing strong enough to push her into a relationship is extremely strong attraction -- which often leads to another rapid, intense limerence period, followed by another painful relationship ending.

Conscious Girlfriend Certification Program Dates:

Spring-Summer 2022

Homework and practice sessions are required between each module. Sessions will be recorded for your future reference. Participants are encouraged to attend each module live if at all possible. However, if unavoidable schedule conflicts arise, you may miss up to one full day of training and catch up via the recording, in order to graduate on schedule. 

Module 1: Sunday, March 27, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PT

Module 2: Sunday, April 24, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PT

Module 3: Sunday, May 22, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PT

Module 4: Sunday, June 26, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PT

Summer Break (and time for more practice sessions)

Module 5: Sunday, August 28, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PT

Module 6: Sunday, September 25, 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. PT