Love at first swipe ‘Swipe’ is not for the faint hearted. Especially not on a large scale with ghosting, breadcrumbing, or emotional unavailability. Enter Relationship Coaches, offering cohort-based courses or programs in an effort to make dating and love a healthier and happier experience. But how successful are they?
Matchmaker and relationship coach Radhika Mohta, who offers a two-week long program priced at Rs 12,000
Radhika Mohta’s ‘Dating Accelerator’, for example, is designed for singles aged 25 and above. The two week long online program consists of two consecutive hour long group interactive sessions online. Launched in January 2023 and priced at ₹12,000, it aims to help people gain clarity on their personality and attachment style, as well as help them curate a dating profile that attracts better matches Will do “This one is for everyone who wants to prepare for their ultimate first date,” says Radhika, Bengaluru-based matchmaker and relationship coach.
In December 2022, Gurgaon-based Harshveer Jain started a similar two-week program on HaveYouMeetYourself, Mingout, a community-driven social app that he co-founded. While it costs ₹1,999, an early bird discount can bring the price down to ₹699, and includes two hours of in-house content and one interactive session.
February is the month of love, so it’s no surprise that the second batch of both the shows are launching soon. In fact, Radhika says she had no plans till April but succumbed to the rising demand.
But both insist that neither program is a route to matchmaking. “Don’t promise that your dating life will change. You still might not meet many people and you still might not be married for two years. But you might just be a happier, healthier person because you’ve Would have learned a lot about yourself. When you know what you’re looking for, rejection won’t feel as bad,” explains Harshveer, who is also the face behind the popular Instagram comics account @storysellercomics, which has over 4,00,000 followers. have more followers.
Mumbai-based dating coach Prateek Jain who offers 1:1 programs for men only
They say love can make your world go round. Even the search for it can make people run in dizzy circles. Prateek Jain, a Mumbai-based dating coach, says, “Even though the larger narrative of dating these days is casual, most men and women will happily give it a go if they find a reciprocity with someone who they love on a day-to-day basis.” Makes the day happy.” With over 10,000 followers on Instagram (@a.note.to.men). Her offerings are 1:1 sessions for men only. The bill for the two-day course will be ₹32,000, while the six-month course costs ₹42,000. “The fact that I’m thriving isn’t good news. Dating has become so complicated,” he says.
Case in point: G Arun Prasad is curious about why Cupid’s arrow missed him. The 31-year-old says he is looking for a “serious relationship”, but his search for love proved to be like finding a needle in a haystack on dating apps, while arranged marriage portals were nothing less than a “fish market”. . “People were considering everything from religion to caste except compatibility between two people,” he says.
Tired of the algorithms running the show, Prasad turned to Mingout’s cohort-based program to get answers to where it was going wrong. “I didn’t really learn anything new,” says the content developer, “but it put some things into perspective, which was the most recent click I’ve had to date.”
This is precisely the purpose of these programs by focusing on one individual. “If daters don’t understand what they’re looking for, they’ll confuse others,” explains Radhika, who became a full-time matchmaker four years ago. “I don’t want to sound romantic, but for all practical purposes, each of us would like to partner with someone. The stars align when you’re ready to let someone in and are in the right headspace, she says.
Simply put, these courses are not a compass pointing you to ‘The One’. Instead they can teach you to read the map of your emotions, needs and wants. That’s why Radhika’s curriculum has elements that help people identify self-destructive beliefs and how to work on those triggers.
But how can progress on such abstract concepts be tracked, especially when it all happens online via group video calls? Well, what is a course without homework. Courses include shooting new photos for a dating profile, chatting with couples in healthy relationships about what’s keeping them going, and so on. “These sessions provide a safe space. So when a participant admits to deleting their ex’s number after two years or someone looks back at their past relationship and realizes they may not have been a great husband, So I consider it progress,” says Radhika.
For Amala Krishnamurthy*, the sessions resulted in more active participation in social events, courtesy of the module on Designing Social Life. The 37-year-old hasn’t necessarily met anyone to date, but it’s reassuring to know there are possibilities out there.
it’s a man’s world
It cannot be denied that these programs only cater to those looking for heterosexual relationships. Yet, even among them, the proportion is tilted more towards males. Of the 70 participants in Harshveer’s first batch, only 10 were women. Radhika also got 80% males in her session.
“Men have a hard time figuring out why they aren’t finding matches on dating apps, so they’re more open to decoding it,” she says.
Prateek also thinks something like this. According to her, while women face problems with a specific person, “men’s problems, in general, are about women.” “There’s also the problem with men that they don’t know what they want or what kind of relationship they’re looking for. Women are more settled in that aspect,” he says.
However, the million dollar question is whether these programs are worth it. Perhaps one way to think about it is like a romanticized version of professional upskilling. Harshveer hesitates to call it so, but says, “It is more about understanding oneself and removing underlying prejudices. Taking a course will not automatically get you more dates. But you can become a better person overall,” he says, even offering customers a 100% money-back guarantee.
Harshveer says, “I think romance is the only human pursuit that is worth having. Everything else makes you a living being but love makes you alive.
*Name changed on request