Terry Real, MSW, LCSW

Terry Real, MSW, LCSW is an internationally recognized family therapist, speaker, and best-selling author. Terry founded the Relational Life Institute (RLI) to provide workshops for couples, individuals, and parents and a professional training program for clinicians wanting to learn his Relational Life Therapy (RLT) methodology.

Terry is the best-selling author of I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression (1997), the straight-talking How Can I Get Through to You? Reconnecting Men and Women (2002), The New Rules of Marriage: What You Need to Make Love Work (2008), and most recently, the New York Times best-seller, Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship (2022). Terry knows how to lead couples on a step-by-step journey to greater intimacy — and greater personal fulfillment.

A senior faculty member of the Family Institute of Cambridge in Massachusetts and a retired Clinical Fellow of the Meadows Institute in Arizona, Terry has worked with thousands of individuals, couples, and fellow therapists. Through his books, RLI, and workshops, Terry helps women and men, parents, and non-parents, to help them create the connection they desire in their relationships.

His ideas on men’s issues and couple’s therapy have been celebrated in venues from Good Morning America, The Today Show, and 20/20 to Oprah and The New York Times.

The Relational Life Institute grew out of Terry’s extensive and empathic experience. He has trained thousands of therapists who have benefited from a whole new perspective on working with couples and individuals. RLT teaches people how to make their relationships work by providing products and services designed to teach the principles of Relational Life so that everyone can enjoy full respect living and craft a healthy life legacy.