After successfully helping hundreds of thousands of people take responsibility for their own actions, Dr. Phil McGraw now turns his expertise to the primary area of concern troubling most people: their relationships. In his tell-it-like-it-is style that already has influenced millions of Oprah viewers, "Dr. Phil" blows the whistle on the rhetoric of traditional "couples therapy" and instead tells you that -- no matter what state your relationship is in -- not only are you responsible for it, you are responsible for getting it back on track. By doing this, he offers readers the chance for further happiness through meaningful, fulfilling relationships that work.

Dr. Phil McGraw sets the record straight on the most popular myths about what a good relationship is supposed to be, such as:

Myth #1: A great relationship depends on a great meeting of the minds

Myth #6: A great relationship lets you vent all your feelings

Myth #7: A great relationship has nothing to do with sex

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As a follow-up to his bestselling book Life Strategies, Oprah acolyte Phillip C. McGraw, Ph.D., moves from aiding the aimless individual to coaching the disconnected couple. McGraw has distilled his more than two decades of counseling experience into a seven-step strategy he calls "Relationship Rescue."

"I'm prepared to kick a hole in the wall of the pain-ridden, unhappy maze you've gotten yourself into, and provide you clear access to action-oriented answers and instructions on what you must do to have what you want," says Dr. Phil. His aim is to expose and eliminate the saboteurs that cause senseless damage to already-fragile marriages, and, like an emotional root canal, to replace them with values he says provide positive results. If you follow Dr. Phil's strategy, he will lead you on a precise journey to uncover your heart and then share it with your partner as part of taking the "risk of intimacy."

Dr. Phil leads you to "reconnect with your core" in the first five steps of his seven-step strategy. By no means a quick fix, there are in-depth and rigorous questionnaires, surveys, tests, and profiles that require a "brutally candid" mindset, with such fill-in-the-blanks as "List five things that today would make you fall out of love with your partner." With this internal work accomplished, you'll then move on to reconnecting with your partner during a two-week, half-hour-a-day short course. As a "dyad," you and your loved one take turns giving monologues on topics such as "The most positive thing I took away from my mother and father's relationship was..."

Once the "reconnection" has been established, Dr. Phil says the work shifts to a management role, as relationships are always a work in progress. Dr. Phil humorously refers to his own marriage throughout the book, sharing his mishaps and victories in learning to accept and enjoy what he sees as fundamental but complementary differences between men and women. --John Youngs