6 Ingredients of Lasting Love with Dr Sara Nasserzadeh

Hosted by Rosemary Davies-Janes. Produced by J’aime Rothbard.

This conversation delivers rich insights on the importance of clear communication and intentional maintenance in healthy love relationships. Dr Sara also explores the ways personal and inherited trauma can impact intimate relationships, from causing ongoing emotional issues to expanding individuals' resilience and abilities to maintain healthy relationships. In addition to sharing stories from her personal and professional life, Dr Sara explains:

How the six relational ingredients of her Emergent Love Model interact and evolve over time. - The specific conditions required for love to flourish, gleaned from studying 312 couples - The common issues that result when couples communicate without mutual understanding. - The different couple conflict dynamics that shape children's emotional health - Why love is a conscious choice, not something one "falls into" or "out of".

Dr Sara offers tools and strategies couples can use proactively to strengthen their relationships and provides practical guidance on how to cultivate loving relationships through awareness, active engagement and understanding rather than passive acceptance.

About Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh

An award-winning social psychologist, global thought leader and relationship expert, Dr Sara’s work bridges personal intimacy, professional excellence and intercultural fluency. She has authored multiple books, book chapters and white papers, including her award-winning 2024 book, Love by Design: 6 Ingredients to Build a Lifetime of Love.

Having worked as a senior advisor to the United Nations (UN), its Population Fund (UNFPA), its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO), and Fortune 500 companies across 41 countries, Dr Sara’s mission is: To create world peace, one relationship at a time.

Dr Sara is also a highly regarded scholar who has served on the boards of The International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH), the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS), the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), and the California Psychological Association’s Division VII.

Dr Sara created and hosted the BBC World Service’s, The Whispers, a first-of-its-kind program addressing issues related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships in the Middle East. In 2007, it earned the BBC’s Innovation of the Year Award and continues to reach millions of Farsi speaking communities around the world.

Celebrated by peers and clients alike, Dr Sara received: The Clark Vincent Award from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) for advancing the field of marriage and family therapy, The American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists’ (AASECT) Professional Excellence Award, Pfizer’s Innovation of the Year Award, and was a British Council UK Alumni Award for Social Impact finalist. Her work has been featured in global media including NPR, BBC, CNN, ABC, New York Times and USA Today.

Dr Sara lives in Los Angeles and travels extensively for speaking engagements, cultural explorations, media engagements and research.

Promotional Message: If you’ve been listening to our podcast, you may have heard guests connect their birth experiences with enduring subconscious behavioural and emotional patterns. To help break this cycle, Compassionate Inquiry® offers The Portal, a 28-week trauma-informed training for perinatal health professionals; such as midwives, obstetricians, nurses and doulas, who want to empower their patients to trust their innate ability to birth, bond & nurture their child. Use this link to learn more.

Resources:

Website:

Dr Sara's Professional Website

Related Links:

Articles:

Dr Sara’s monthly newsletter on Substack

The Six Signs Your Relationship Is One That Will Last

How to Make a Marriage Work (Even If It’s With a Gold Digger)

Books: Love by Design: 6 Ingredients to Build a Lifetime of Love (2024)

Sexuality Education Wheel of Context (2017)

The Orgasm Answer Guide (2009)

Videos:

Is Love the Secret Ingredient at Work?

Love by Design Q&A

Balancing Multiple Roles and Maintaining the Desire Towards Our Partner

How Trauma Affects Your Lovelife

TEDx UCIrvine: Why Our Names Are the Gateway to Intimacy

Podcasts:

A New Model for Love

Love by Design: Why Couples Succeed

Love by Design

Sex in the Middle East

Quotes: “Human beings are members of the whole in creation of one essence, and soul. If one member is afflicted with pain, other members uneasy will remain. If you have no sympathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain.” - Saadi Shirazi

“...within this book, [Love By Design] one of the things that I wanted to achieve was to really capture that essence of thriving relationships, from...