Challenge to Love

Still in print & more timely than ever! With the AIDS epidemic & the crisis in relationships from indiscriminate sex, sexual restraint is now appreciated for reasons of health, intimacy & love. CHALLENGE TO LOVE by Mary Shivanandan, MA, CFLE, STL, shows how waiting for sex can help a relationship. Most couples think sexual intercourse the best way to intimacy. Surprisingly, couples report greater intimacy when practicing periodic abstinence. Now in its third edition & seventh printing, this book explores the experience of couples who have discovered a new way of living & loving. On first publication as Natural Sex (1979), Publishers Weekly wrote: Shivanandan writes lucidly--& with a conviction she transfers to readers--on a subject of vital interest to millions." Frank Valcour, Washington psychiatrist, describes the book as presenting "an integrating vision of human sexual life" & the Madison Review of Books calls it "such a warmly written medical, psychological, emotional & spiritual experience that ... every couple would find enlightment." Consultant to government & private agencies on natural family planning, Shivanandan wrote "the psychology of abstinence" for nursing & medical student manuals. Former contributing editor of Marriage & Family Living, she has authored scholarly papers & lectured nationally.