John Van Epp, PhD is the author of How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk, published by McGraw-Hill, which blends in-depth research with humorous stories to provide a map for making healthy relationship choices.

Dr. Van Epp has had extensive experience in pastoral ministry, counseling (he had a twenty-year private practice that he retired in 2009), and teaching as an adjunct professor where he taught marriage and family coursework and reviewed extensive research in premarital, marital and family relations.

In the late 1990’s, Dr. Van Epp began training and certifying others in a program that he had developed, How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk (prior to the publication of the book). This program unpacked his Relationship Attachment Model (RAM) which he had been using in his counseling to help couples and individuals understand and improve their relationships.

Dr. Van Epp continued to develop additional relationship programs with the RAM that have been taught to more than half a million, and used by non-profit and community organizations, high schools and universities, social agencies, juvenile and correctional facilities, churches and faith-based organizations, and in all fifty states, ten countries and by more than 10,000 instructors certified by Dr. Van Epp. For an overview of his programs and the research validating the effectiveness of them, go here.

Dr. Van Epp and his innovative Relationship Attachment Model, book and relationship programs were awarded the Smart Marriage Impact Award in 2008, and have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Psychology Today, O Magazine, and Cosmopolitan; and he has appeared on the CBS Early Show, the O’Reilly Factor, Fox News, and Focus on the Family.

He continues to write and develop relationship materials, train others to facilitate relationship programs, and provide coaching services on relationships. He has been happily married for over thirty-eight years and is the proud father of two daughters.