The 21st century matchmaker

Jennifer Haskins: Two’s company

Jennifer Haskins runs dating agency Two’s Company. Between December 2013 and April 2014, the company saw 10 engagements among its matches. Having married and divorced, Jennifer found herself back on the dating scene in her early 30s without any unattached female friends to go out with.

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It wasn’t easy. When she had a particularly bad experience with internet dating, she went to a dating agency where she met someone she was in a relationship with for seven years.

Having run her own manufacturing business, Handmade Foods, for 23 years and having completed several counselling, psychotherapy and other therapy courses, Jennifer had both the entrepreneurial expertise and knowledge to set up her own dating agency.

Two’s Company caters for people from all walks of life – farmers, trades people and professionals who range in age from 28 to 78.

“I found the difference was, and still is, that the people who come to an agency (compared to those who use internet dating) are very transparent. They want to meet someone for a relationship – not a one-night stand or a fling. They’ve made a decision.”

She says that in rural areas there is “not enough going on”.

“Pubs are closed, there are drink driving laws and everything in rural areas is a drive away. And in rural areas everyone knows everyone else. People don’t want it to be obvious that they’re looking for a partner.”

Does she get more women or men coming through her doors?

“Women are more proactive by our nature. There’s a waiting list. If we took on every woman that made an enquiry, we’d have an uneven split. I may not advise someone to join if I don’t have people for them at the time.”

“For men, it’s about the physical attraction. (Irish Country Living groans). “Well it is,” she laughs. “It goes with their nature. Number two is personality.

“Height is very important to a lot of women. I’m finding more and more that I’m getting tall women – we can’t take on anymore 5ft 10” women at the moment.”

She says young women are looking for stability. By stability does she mean money?

“We don’t get gold diggers. I have had, on occasion, older millionaires who wanted a much younger woman. But I can’t do a lot for them. The women that are coming to us have good jobs and are financially secure. They are looking for love.”

Jennifer says that Two’s Company is accredited with the Association of British Introduction Agencies (ABIA) – a non-profit organisation. CL

www.twoscompany.ie

Patricia Lohan: Soulmate Attraction Formula course

Patricia Lohan developed the Soulmate Attraction Formula course through her own experience in attracting the man of her dreams. She has dated a range of guys over the years, each of whom she thought was the one. There was a surfer, a farmer, a carpenter, an engineer, a fighter pilot, a yoga teacher and a shaman, to name but a few. Looking back, however, she says she has learned from each.

“It was like fine tuning this ideal person that I’d like to attract into my life. I was always really unlucky in love, like really, really unlucky. At 16 I lost the first guy I was infatuated with – he was killed in a car accident. I was very scared of commitment for the next 10 years.”

In her mid-20s, having studied business, marketing and French in UL, Patricia was running a restaurant in Galway that she had set up with her Dad. She was in a long-term relationship with a guy who “knew that if he ever proposed to me I would have run 500 miles away. We had a gorgeous house, two lovely cars. I was a successful business woman, but inside I was dieing – but it wasn’t his fault. I blamed it on the relationship, broke up with him and went on this mad spiral of going out and being a crazy party animal.”

However, after collapsing one night, she realised something had to change and she went on an extreme holistic path which culminated in her moving to India to become a yoga teacher. She also trained as a sound healer and a reiki master.

After returning to Ireland, she moved to Dublin and at a winter solstice event in Dunderry a man called Ken came and sat beside her – now they’re engaged.

“He gets me. He understands me. I didn’t have to change.”

She says she was ready for the one by the time she met Ken because she had gone on a healing journey and made amends with and learned lessons from her past.

Patricia feels it is totally possible to “attract the right person into your life”. She says that women need to start looking at the future. But to do this they need to clear the past first. That’s why she set up this course which she says gives women tools they can use to do just this.

Women need to make emotional space internally, according to Patricia, but we also need to make physical space externally: “Women’s lives are so busy. They’re actually just too busy to meet someone. They pack it up, filling the void, but they’re not actually putting their attention on finding the right person.

Those interested in the course should visit www.patricialohan.com/attract-your-soulmate. The course includes weekly emails with guided meditation videos and access to an online forum.