S3e23: Linda & Charlie Bloom – Partnership as a Laboratory

Linda and Charlie Bloom each did the Hoffman Process thirty years ago. The powerful transformations they experienced at the Process continue to be alive in them today. Charlie tells us how he learned of the freedom and joy in taking responsibility for his own life. Linda shares about grieving the image of ‘parents charming,’ the perfect parents she didn’t get so that she could come to accept and honor the parents she did have.

Listen in as Linda and Charlie offer decades of learning, experience, and insight around partnership as a laboratory. In their work, they guide clients to see relationships as a way to learn how to be in and grow into partnership, as well as a path to wellness.

The Blooms originally became psychotherapists because they came from difficult families and wanted to understand what functional families look like. With that understanding, they could create a better family for their children. Along the same lines, they started working with couples after going through a rocky time themselves in their marriage. 

More about the Blooms

Married since 1972, Linda and Charlie Bloom have been working with groups, individuals, couples, and organizations since 1975. Their work is to support clients in enhancing the quality of their relationships and communication skills. Linda and Charlie both have Master’s degrees in Clinical Social Work. They’ve lectured, led seminars, and provided consultation at universities and learning institutes nationally and internationally.

The Blooms’ organization, Bloomwork, is dedicated to promoting healthy, fulfilling, and successful relationships for individuals, couples, and organizations. Linda and Charlie have served as psychotherapists, marriage counselors, consultants, and seminar leaders since 1975. In addition to their academic and professional training, the Blooms’ expertise in the field of relationships stems from experience in the crucible of their own committed partnership of over 52 years.

The Blooms have written and published four books: Happily Ever After…and 39 Other Myths about Love: Breaking Through to the Relationship of Your Dreams, 101 Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married: Simple Lessons to Make Love Last, Secrets of Great Marriages: Real Stories from Real Couples about Lasting Love, and That Which Doesn’t Kill Us: How One Couple Became Stronger in the Broken Places. 

As mentioned in this episode

Enlightened Self-Interest

You don’t have to choose between your needs and your partner’s needs or the relationship’s needs. Everything you put into your relationship will come back to you.

John Gottman of the Gottman Institute