Getting the Love You Want

A Guide for Couples: 20th Anniversary Edition

By: Harville Hendrix Ph.D.

Narrated by: Jack Garrett

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

In Getting the Love You Want, Dr. Harville Hendrix presents the relationship skills that have already helped hundreds of thousands of couples to replace confrontation and criticism with a healing process of mutual growth and support. 

This extraordinarily practical guide describes the revolutionary technique of Imago Relationship Therapy, which combines a number of disciplines - including the behavioral sciences, depth psychology, cognitive therapy, and Gestalt therapy, among others - to create a program to resolve conflict and renew communication and passion. 

In a new chapter and afterword, we learn the key ways in which Imago Therapy - now practiced by more than two thousand therapists worldwide - can be used to help couples eliminate all negativity from their daily interactions. 

This fundamental change has proven invaluable in couples' therapy, and the importance of eliminating negativity has been integrated throughout the text, allowing listeners of the 2008 edition to benefit from Dr. Hendrix's ongoing discoveries during his last two decades of work. 

©1988, 2008 Harville Hendrix (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"I know of no better guide for couples who genuinely desire a maturing relationship." (M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled)

PLEASE match narration to content!

I really wanted to like this book, but the narrator's style was so annoying I couldn't listen long enough to get to the first chapter. His style was too dramatic and over-acted for the material and thus came across as condescending and inauthentic. Good narration should add to, not detract from, the material being read. Unfortunately, the listening samples aren't long enough to allow one to determine whether a particular style is well suited to the content, and what may be palatable in a short sample can easily become a distraction over a longer period.

Startling, Yet Thrilling!

If you could sum up Getting the Love You Want in three words, what would they be?

I don't think three words are enough for this crazy adventure I just went on.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked how this book was very thorough. The narrator explains how our brains work within our relationships in terms that are easy to understand.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Hidden Agenda of Your Subconscious!

Any additional comments?

Though this book seems to be written for couples who are already going through the "power struggle" and learning how to get their relationship back, I decided to give it a try. I'm 27 and currently living with my boyfriend of three years. We have had a great relationship so far but this book taught me some of the underlying tensions that seem to develop over time. An entire new world has just been opened to me and it has terrified me and exhilarated me. I've just learned things about my past that I've never known before and with this new information, I can move forward in my relationship with a better light.
I'm pretty sure everyone can learn something new about themselves with this book. Even if you're single and not even interested in a romantic love right now, the knowledge in this book will put what you need from a relationship in a new perspective. I highly recommend it to every human being.

Over-dramatic narration proved unbearable

How did the narrator detract from the book?
I will have to find time to read this book because while the content is engaging and extremely useful, the narration was distracting to the point that I just couldn't take the mismatch with the material any longer and gave up. Garrett's style may fit the Westerns he usually narrates, but it kept making me think of car-show commercials, and I couldn't concentrate on the principles he was bulldozing through. I hope Audible, and/or the Hendrix's, will try to find a more suited narrator who A) cares more about the material, and B) who has the nuanced capacity to take the listeners through the varied emotional and psychological territory of the book.

One Stop Resource for improving your relationship

I found this book useful, inspiring, and immediately implementable. It helped me understand myself, my wife, and what I needed to do to improve my marriage. I would make this required reading by law for anyone married on planning to get married. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Life saver!

The ideas here were the key to being able to really communicate about problems and appreciate the good in our relationship! No other book has been so valuable. The authors years of experience are evident!

Good but....

What did you like best about Getting the Love You Want? What did you like least?

I liked that there are exercises you can do alone and with your partner.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Less religion. There is a whole chapter on the author's biography and how he sees therapy as a way to bring people close to God. He needs to be neutral in order to relate to ALL his readers

Would you listen to another book narrated by Jack Garrett?

not if religion is over lapping psychology too many times.

Any additional comments?

Please put a pdf file for the exercises section. It is hard to take note of the verbal instructions. A pdf list for exercises would be a well needed study addition.

Great Book

If you are in a relationship you need to listen to this book! Great for everyone involved.

The hired actor is not authentic

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Jack Garrett?

The author, I always want the author, they are the most authentic. Authenticity is key for a story to be believable.

Any additional comments?

Hard to listen to. Sounds like I am listening to an actor who does move trailers... for 10 hours!!!

The most compelling self help book I've ever read

This book is well written, captivates my attention, is easy to follow, very informative, thoroughly answers many questions that I've long struggles with and gives me hope of having the marriage I've long wanted. It is much more than a book on relationships, it is a book on healing and becoming whole.

If you're ready for it, it could change your life

(and if you can get past the cheesy title.) Basic techniques to understand yourself better by looking deeply into yourself, then help your relationships with everyone, by learning to communicate better (yes, i know it sounds cliche), and really, deeply understand others. Read it, then attend his seminars.