The Scoop: In 1985, Dr. Margaret Paul and Dr. Erika Chopich co-created the Inner Bonding® spiritual healing philosophy to help people recognize their self-worth and forge enduring, healthy relationships. Inner Bonding’s six-step process emphasizes the importance of self-care and encourages people to listen to their minds, bodies, and spirits to discover a renewed purpose and joy.
Sometimes people fall into unhealthy dating patterns without knowing why. They just know they’re unhappy. Some daters can struggle to find meaningful connections in an increasingly fast-paced dating scene, so they move from one dissatisfying relationship to another without knowing how to break the chain. That’s usually when they seek help from a trained professional.
“It seems to me that more people are aware of being emotionally unavailable and want to heal those underlying issues,” said Dr. Margaret Paul, the Co-Founder of the Inner Bonding® healing method. “More people want to learn to love themselves rather than continue to abandon themselves, which leads them to Inner Bonding.”
Dr. Margaret Paul and Dr. Erika Chopich created Inner Bonding in 1985.
Dr. Margaret believes that the power to heal lies within ourselves, and she teaches people to unlock that power through conscious, daily effort.
Inner Bonding gives people a loving philosophy that can guide them through life’s challenges. Dr. Margaret’s work goes beyond simple dating advice and gets to the root of emotional blockages and pain.
The six-step Inner Bonding method prompts people to take stock of where they’re at and create a plan for where they want to go. Dr. Margaret helps people connect with their divine wisdom to discover the truth of their relationships.
Once daters take responsibility for their emotions and learn how to love themselves, they can give love to others and attract quality partners who share similarly positive mindsets.
“We attract partners at our common level of woundedness or our common level of health. As people learn and practice Inner Bonding, they become much more emotionally healthy,” Dr. Margaret said. “We want this process to be available for anyone who wants to heal their pain and discover how to bring love and joy into their lives.”
SelfQuest: Self-Directed Coursework Full of Wisdom
SelfQuest is a patented program that teaches personal responsibility and Inner Bonding. It offers a personal toolbox and self-directed exercises to help people become more mindful about their relationships with themselves, others, and the world. Dr. Margaret launched a nonprofit called SelfQuest® Educational Foundation, Inc. that raises money to provide its online programs to high schools and correctional facilities.
Teachers across the country have incorporated Inner Bonding’s lessons into health classes and seen students grow more compassionate, self-aware, and emotionally balanced.
Prison inmates also benefit from these lessons. Many have written letters saying that Inner Bonding’s resources have helped them identify their negative patterns and embrace positivity.
“It helps people connect their feelings with their thoughts, beliefs, and actions,” Dr. Margaret said. “The inspiration was to bring the transformative six-step process of Inner Bonding to anyone who wants to learn to love themselves and take responsibility for their inner peace and joy.”
SelfQuest is a comprehensive self-help program for people on a healing journey.
The SelfQuest program includes questionnaires, visualization exercises, dream work, instructive videos, and an extensive glossary of terms. Participants assess their emotional strengths and weaknesses and apply those insights to their relationships. Dr. Margaret also teaches the Emotional Freedom Technique in this program to help people manage their overwhelming feelings.
As people go through this dynamic and transformative process, they learn how to reduce anxiety, depression, and other negative feelings.
“SelfQuest is amazing,” said Levette Brown in a testimonial. “I’m calling it my personal therapist. It is so insightful and creates an awareness of the depths that exist within me.”
Looking to the future, Dr. Margaret hopes to reach a more diverse audience by translating SelfQuest into Spanish, French, German, and other languages. Her insights are universal.
“We teach people how to access their inner or higher source of wisdom, love, and comfort,” she explained. “This is a psychological and spiritual program, but not a religious program. It applies to any religion. It encompasses mind, body and spirit.”
Expanding Her Impact on the Modern Dating Scene
In 2018, Dr. Margaret made substantial progress in growing the Inner Bonding brand. She completed a webinar and wrote a workbook to make her methods more accessible to everyone. The Inner Bonding Workbook delivers sage guidance for moving past shame, anxiety, and guilt and tapping into a higher source of love and truth.
Dr. Margaret also partnered with mental wellness companies Amare Global/Flourish to offer a 30-day relationships course called Wildly, Deeply, Joyously In Love. Once she completed that project, she worked on an ebook called Thriving At Last to further inform and inspire Flourish’s audience.
“All this will be very helpful in terms of bringing Inner Bonding to the world,” Dr. Margaret said.
“The Inner Bonding work has completely changed my life and my relationship for the better.” — Danielle Koprowski
As a holistic guide and nutritional psychologist, Dr. Margaret is invested in healing the body as well as the spirit, and she has recently written about the relationship between poor diet and poor mental health. She covers this important topic in “Diet For Divine Connection: Beyond Junk Foods and Junk Thoughts to At-Will Divine Connection.”
Inner Bonding clearly lays out the connection between how one thinks and how one acts, and its teachings challenge individuals to become more conscious on their day-to-day decisions to either love or abandon themselves.
Since she began working in psychotherapy, Dr. Margaret has endeavored to bring wisdom, comfort, and healing to people struggling to cope with negative thoughts and feelings. Her work has impacted many lives by improving the way singles and couples express and give love to one another.
“I would like to see dating and relationships focused on learning to give and share love rather than trying to get love,” she said. “My focus has been on giving and sharing love for years, and I am always learning and evolving in this area.”
Inner Bonding Promotes Kindness & Love
It can be hard to be in a loving relationship while carrying baggage from past pains, but a few simple therapeutic exercises can help people learn how to let go and move forward.
Dr. Margaret Paul strengthens the inner spirit by developing a person’s innate capacity for love. Her counseling programs focus on growing the enduring qualities — kindness, integrity, honesty, and loyalty — that can make relationships last.
Inner Bonding teaches people to love themselves and confront their false beliefs in a deep, meaningful way. Dr. Margaret has written books and developed coursework to spread this loving message and heal people’s hearts, minds, and bodies. Her guidance prepares singles to attract a loving partner and create a long-lasting relationship.
“Our planet needs people to move out of being governed by their ego and into being governed by love,” she said. “When people know who they are and deeply love and value who they are, then they can see and value others for their intrinsic qualities, and that’s when our world will heal.”
