First, the formal bio:  

• Ruth L. Schwartz is the author of eight books, including the Amazon LGBTQ bestseller Conscious Lesbian Dating & Love. 
• Her training includes a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology and three years of study in Somatica Sex & Intimacy coaching. She is also a Board-Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and extensively trained in shamanic work. 
• Ruth has taught at Ashland University, Mills College, California State University-Fresno, and five other colleges and universities, and has worked with private students and clients since 2003. 
• Ruth came out in 1982 and is a longtime teacher and leader in the LGBTQ community. She is deeply grateful to have been given the spiritual mission to start Conscious Girlfriend. 
• The website datingadvice.com named Ruth one of the Ten Best Queer Dating Experts in 2023. 

Now, a more personal story from Ruth about how I got here -- and how I can help you get where you want to go in love.  

As a child, I would never have imagined I'd be running an international program about conscious lesbian dating and relationships. Yet it makes sense when you think about the shamanic archetype of the wounded healer. There's an elegant way that, with commitment and grace, our wounds can become our gifts.

I was a sensitive kid with well-meaning teenaged parents who were ill-equipped to parent me or to love each other. I learned to leave my body when they fought, yelling vicious things at each other.  We moved every year, so I had to start over... and over... and over. It made me flexible, and also unmoored. 

I turned to romantic love for my salvation, but of course, I had no idea how to create a healthy, enduring relationship. The first time I fell madly in love, our connection was magical, passionate and mutual -- and when she broke up with me, the pain was almost unbearable. I was shocked and shattered. 

But in the aftermath, crying for days on my old green stuffed chair, I realized that although she and I had been madly in love, we had never talked about what we each wanted from our relationship, what we intended, or how we would navigate it if things got tough.

What did I want, and how could I become fully ready for it, available for it, and capable of it? I had never asked myself those kinds of questions, and I realized belatedly that it was highly unlikely I could find a compatible partner without that. 

Honestly, I had seen the red flags from the beginning. My partner hadn't deceived me. She was not at fault. I had deceived myself because I didn't know what else to do when I was in love. 

"Oh, sweetheart," I wish I could say now to that younger self of mine. "There is a better way." 

That shocking pain was my wakeup call, and started me on a quest which, many years later, became Conscious Girlfriend. But because no one was offering me the kind of information I now teach, I had to learn the hard way. 

There wasn't a roadmap for lesbians who wanted good relationships, but I compiled one myself. 

Now I offer a faster, easier path to women and adjacent non-binary people who are ready to choose healthy love. Since the book Conscious Lesbian Dating & Love came out in 2015, women from 25 countries have taken our classes -- and every day I receive emails letting me know how it has changed their lives.

I really believe that together, in Conscious Girlfriend, we are co-creating a new world, one that can truly nourish us, not just through romantic love, but also through community and connection.

And if you want to take the fast track, I recommend that you combine Conscious Girlfriend Coaching to support you 1:1, along with our classes.  I highly recommend all our coaches, and have trained them all!

I'm personally able to support very few people, and I only coach people who are also Supporting members in the Academy, because it makes the coaching process so much more efficient. There are things that can only happen 1:1, and other things that can only happen in our groups and classes, so I want to see you benefit from both!

Signing up for both Supporting Membership and coaching with me at the same time? Then you're definitely my kind of person, a deep diver, and you can save $400 by doing both at once. Already a Supporting Member who wants to add coaching, too? Email me and we'll give you the same fee adjustment :)