Therapist Villano, Psychic Sansone-Braff Channel Power of Love

To most, it was a day like any other. To Ron Villano it was anything but.

“Valentine’s Day is every day. Every night is Saturday night,” said the Bohemia based psychotherapist. “You cannot live the future. It’s impossible.”

Villano and Cindi Sansone-Braff, the Long Island Press’s recent pick (over Glen Cove’s John Edward) as top psychic on Long Island, spoke on self-love, relationships, and the role of the universe recently at Borders Books in Stony Brook.

Sansone-Braff, who doubles as a relationship coach, opened the dialogue with a nod to dysfunction, a trait learned in the home by both us and our partners. Despite entering relationships hopeful and brim with excitement, we exhibit the potential to replicate our parents’ shortcomings.

“You say you’d never argue like your parents. But then you become the mother you swore you’d never be” said Sansone-Braff. “You begin to forgive your parents only after you start to become them.”

However, we are only responsible for our own behavior – not our partner’s.

“Peace at any price is not the same as true peace…and we’re all going to have toxic moments… but [they] shouldn’t go on for years.”

Sansone-Braff emphazied the notion of love being “like a ladder.” Love can climb a few rungs, fall back down, reach the top – soulmates – and hit rock bottom (where “toxic love” finds “cellmates, not soulmates”) in a seemingly endless cycle. 

Villano also explained the breakdown of love in the cyclical, or, what he called the triangular.

“[When] people separate but don’t get divorced, it’s because they don’t want to get divorced… relationships start revolving, not evolving. But the universe wants you to move forward.”

Both Sansone-Braff and Villano have done so, relying on tales of personal hardship to inspire others. After 29 years, the former worked up the courage to escape an unhappy marriage, an experience which helped inspire 2008’s Grant Me a Higher Love, a guide for scaling romance’s ladder. And in 1998, Villano’s son, Michael, was killed in a traffic accident on Sunrise Highway. He was only 17 years old.

Despite the night’s somber tones, good vibes flowed fluidly through the room. The two speakers happily took playful ribbing from the audience, with Villano being teased for his backwards cap and Italian background.

Michael’s death has become his father’s driving force. The elder Villano, author of self-discovery guide, The Zing, stressed the importance of not taking life for granted, of living in the moment, of loving yourself – a powerful assertion in a society which preaches negativity. 

“Loving yourself is not an ego statement, even though the world tries to tell us that it is” said Villano.

And so, Feb. 11 needs to become Valentine’s Day. Friday night needs to become Saturday night. To Ron Villano and Cindi Sansone-Braff, they already have. 

“When you choose to change your thoughts, you begin to change your life” said Villano. 

The Zing chronicles Villano’s journey to recoup a passion for life after the death of his youngest son, Michael. It offers help to others seeking to find a love for life.

Grant Me a Higher Love is Cindi Sansone-Braff’s spiritual nineteen-step guide to reaching the apex of the ladder of love.

Both are available for purchase at Amazon.com