Consonance (Gleichklang) for the Most Diverse Life Circumstances
Consonance (Gleichklang) is an online matchmaking service and dating platform for people in the most diverse individual life circumstances. Human experience is characterized by its diversity. Consonance does justice to this in online dating and friendship search through a psychological matching algorithm that captures numerous life circumstances and takes them into account in the matchmaking process.
With this, Consonance (Gleichklang) goes far beyond dating apps and many other dating apps and dating sites that primarily match based on appearance or geographic proximity (dating apps) or where users scroll freely through profiles without any support (dating sites). We effectively support our members in their online dating or friendship search through a psychologically sound system of matchmaking and friendship matchmaking, so that they find the relationships they desire.
Life Circumstances at Consonance (Gleichklang)
- Consonance specifically supports single mothers and single fathers in their partner search. In matchmaking, we ask all members about their acceptance of a partner who is a single parent. This ensures that the role of being a single mother or single father is not an obstacle in partner search. Consonance thus enables single parents to have more effectiveness and ease in online dating. Many single parents encounter problems on dating apps and large matchmaking agencies. They are rejected due to their role as a single parent, or they face safety risks. At Consonance, we therefore provide our single-parent members with a safe and particularly supported space for their online dating.
- Highly sensitive singles looking for a relationship, or highly sensitive people in general wanting to build a social network, are also in a special situation. Society often has little understanding of high sensitivity, and highly sensitive people report difficulties in some of their relationships. Many partnership relationships or even friendships fail when there is no understanding for the existing high sensitivity. At Consonance, singles can search for partners who are also highly sensitive or at least show acceptance and understanding for high sensitivity. Through this principle of a psychologically sound online matchmaking, we can ensure a high level of effectiveness in online dating and friendship search for highly sensitive people. Highly sensitive people often feel helpless and lost with their partner search on dating apps or other dating sites. Traditional online matchmaking agencies also do not offer highly sensitive people any special support in their online dating, as they do not ask about high sensitivity and therefore cannot take it into account in their matchmaking.
- Long-term singles or Absolute Beginners are also in special life circumstances. Consonance is designed, through its psychological matching algorithm and the acceptance principle, to effectively support even long-term singles and Absolute Beginners in their partner search. Our evaluations show that Absolute Beginners and long-term singles have the same chances of success in their partner search as other singles. We attribute this high effectiveness of online dating for long-term singles and Absolute Beginners at Consonance to two principles: (1) consistent matchmaking based on compatibility of life models and relationship models, and (2) capturing acceptance for a relationship or friendship with people who have no prior relationship experience. In contrast, long-term singles and Absolute Beginners often develop insecurity on dating apps or other matchmaking services because their particular situation is not adequately considered and they do not encounter sufficient acceptance.
- People with non-binary gender, transgender (trans identity), or intersex individuals often encounter obstacles in online dating. Knowledge and acceptance of non-binary gender identities, transgender, or intersexuality are still insufficient among many people, despite all societal progress. Consonance is a dating platform where acceptance of the most diverse gender identities plays an important role. We ask all our members whether they would like to enter into a relationship with a non-binary, intersex, or transgender person. Non-binary persons, intersex individuals, transgender persons, and also gender-neutral persons thus have the same prospects for a successful partner search at Consonance as people who correspond to the binary gender concept of male or female. Likewise, we support people with gender fluidity and the entire spectrum of genderqueer in their online dating and friendship search. On many dating sites and dating apps, the partner search of people who are non-binary, intersex, gender-neutral, fluid, or transgender is not specifically supported, or they even experience discrimination and rejection due to their gender identity. At Consonance, people can search for relationships with non-binary individuals, and we additionally assess acceptance and appreciation for transgender and intersexuality. Through these queries, we can offer our non-binary, intersex, gender-neutral, or transgender members online matchmaking and friendship matchmaking of very high effectiveness.
- The diversity and multiplicity of sexual orientations, including their fluidity, also occupy an important place in online matchmaking and friendship matchmaking at Consonance. With this, we set another important accent that distinguishes us from many dating apps, traditional matchmaking agencies, and also most dating sites. Online dating at Consonance is open to everyone: to our heterosexual members as well as to our homosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, skoliosexual (preference for non-binary persons), asexual, and sapiosexual (sapiosexuality = sexual preference for intellectuality) members. People with sexual fluidity, such as homoflexible or heteroflexible individuals, also encounter a dating community at Consonance that wants to bring their partner search and friendship search to success with openness and acceptance.
- A central further basic principle of Consonance is that participation in our matchmaking or friendship search should never fail due to finances. We do not want financially disadvantaged people to be excluded from online dating or the search for friendships. While other online matchmaking agencies charge 700 to 900 EUR per year, our standard fees are many times lower. In our matchmaking, the principle applies: “Low fees for everyone, instead of premium for some“. At Consonance, we offer special fee models to enable all interested parties to participate in Consonance on a long-term basis. In addition to a regular discount rate for financial constraints, upon request in cases of financial hardship, we reduce the annual fee to just six euros per year – in cases of extreme need, a reduction to a single symbolic euro is possible. This pricing structure with social discounts is also a unique feature that you will not find on any dating app, any dating site, or any other online matchmaking service. Consonance is the only option for effective and psychological online dating that includes a social tiering and absolutely excludes no one due to limited financial resources.
- Inclusion is the central principle of Consonance in matchmaking and friendship matchmaking for our dating members with disabilities, handicaps, physical illnesses such as cancer or multiple sclerosis, mental illnesses such as depression or psychosis, sexual dysfunctions such as erectile dysfunction or orgasmic disorder, or with an HIV-positive status. With our matchmaking for autistic individuals, we are also setting standards in this area. We provide this special support for the mentioned and other groups because we know from studies and our own surveys that people with such illnesses, problems, or difficulties often experience online dating as considerably more difficult. One of the biggest problems they encounter is a lack of acceptance. That is why we have made the acceptance approach the guiding principle of our online matchmaking and friendship matchmaking at Consonance: We ask all our members about their acceptance of disabilities, handicaps, physical illnesses, mental disorders, HIV, sexual dysfunctions, or acceptance of a relationship with autistic individuals. In matchmaking and friendship matchmaking, we can on this basis present these individuals with suggestions where acceptance and appreciation are already present from the outset. Through this acceptance principle, people with disabilities, handicaps, or illnesses at Consonance – unlike on most dating apps, matchmaking agencies, and dating sites – have good prospects for their partner search and friendship search. For example, a recent evaluation of the success rates of our members showed that members in wheelchairs, for instance, even have a particularly high chance of finding a relationship at Consonance.
Precisely our consideration of mental issues, psychological disorders, and sexual dysfunctions makes us unique in this overall orientation compared to other dating sites, dating apps, or matchmaking agencies:
- The situation is that, in addition to physical illnesses or handicaps, there are many people who suffer from mental impairments or psychological disorders. Consonance, as the only psychological dating platform, also supports these people helpfully in their online dating. Just as with physical illnesses or disabilities, we ask all our members about their acceptance of a mental illness or psychological disorder. The matching algorithm then ensures that suitable partner suggestions and friendship suggestions are made. Through this approach, Consonance achieves a high level of matchmaking effectiveness for singles with mental illnesses or psychological impairments.
- Sexual dysfunctions, such as erectile dysfunction, orgasmic disorder, pain during sexuality, loss of sexual desire, are often associated with shame and frequently lead to being without a partner. But this does not have to be the case. Just as with physical illnesses, disabilities, and mental illnesses, Consonance assesses the acceptance of the existence of sexual dysfunctions among all members. This makes a relaxed and effective partner search possible for people who suffer from sexual dysfunctions. Sexual dysfunctions should not be a barrier to a fulfilling relationship, but they are often a barrier when the respective individuals conduct their partner search on dating apps or on one of the large online matchmaking agencies. Through the acceptance principle of matchmaking at Consonance, we help people with sexual dysfunctions make their online dating a success and achieve a happy relationship. At Consonance, they can speak openly about their situation and problems and often overcome them this way.
Values and Convictions at Consonance (Gleichklang)
Consonance is not a value-neutral dating app and certainly not just another mainstream matchmaking agency. For us, online dating does not only mean fostering arbitrary relationships. Rather, at Consonance, we want – in line with our social-ecological approach (Green Dating) – to foster relationships that, within their possibilities, do not make this troubled world worse, but better.
We are an online matchmaking service and friendship matchmaking service for socially engaged people, whereby members of Consonance are particularly concerned with the topics of ecology and climate change, animal welfare & animal rights, vegan and vegetarian lifestyles, as well as social justice and solidarity. Some members have deep spiritual or religious convictions, others stand for an agnostic or atheistic view of the world. What they all have in common is that they want to help change the world for the better. Also read our Dating Tips for Vegan Singles or our Dating Tips for Vegetarian Singles.
As a matchmaking agency and getting-to-know platform, Consonance exerts a strong appeal to engaged people with prosocial and ecological convictions who do not feel represented on a typical dating app or the large matchmaking agencies.
Relationship Models at Consonance (Gleichklang)
People have different ideas, desires, and dreams about how they want to live and shape their relationships. Once again, this diversity of love is what Consonance takes up and places at the center of our online matchmaking:
- Most people – and by the way, most of Consonance’s dating seekers – desire a committed, monogamous two-person relationship with another person. Monogamy is the relationship model that most dating seekers choose for themselves, both socially and individually. But there are also those seeking partners who want to venture to new shores, who are interested in open relationships, swinger relationships, or polyamorous relationships (polyamory), which in turn can be lived in diverse ways. At Consonance, we support the partner search of all our members by speaking openly about relationship models, asking about them, and thus basing matchmaking on them. This gives all members the chance to find the kind of relationship they desire. At the same time, we reduce stress, conflicts, and separations that often arise in relationships precisely because the relationship models of the partners do not match. Once again, with this inclusive and equitable approach, we stand out from most dating apps and online matchmaking agencies that do not address different relationship models and thus suggest partners to those seeking monogamous, open, and polyamorous relationship models interchangeably, even though the basis for a stable and happy relationship is not given when relationship models are contradictory.
- Relationship models also differ with regard to desired spatial proximity and distance. People differ in the degree of proximity or distance that is optimal for them in relationships. Many desire a high degree of closeness, but there are also individuals for whom closeness can quickly become too much or too constricting. When people enter into a partnership who differ greatly in their desired degree of closeness, the balance is lost, which is very important for mutual relationship satisfaction and stability. At Consonance, we take into account in our matchmaking the degree of closeness or distance that our members desire for their relationships. In addition to a general assessment of this need for closeness or independence, we also ask about various options for spatial relationship arrangements, such as living together, “Living Apart Together” in different apartments at the same location, or long-distance relationships. By asking about all these options, we are able to bring together people in our online matchmaking who can actually lead a happy, sustainable, and stable partnership with each other. Many new relationships found on dating apps or other dating sites quickly break down, and disillusionment sets in. In contrast, Consonance couples are characterized by a high degree of relationship happiness and stability. We attribute this to the fact that we can support our members’ partner search particularly effectively precisely because we take into account in our matchmaking all central aspects of relationship design in which people can differ. In this way, we can enable a degree of commonality in these central relationship aspects that is typically rarely found in online dating.
Summary
This was only a selection of the various life circumstances that Consonance takes into account in matchmaking and friendship matchmaking. We see ourselves as a meeting and dating platform that affirms the diversity of human experiences and life circumstances and does justice to them against the backdrop of the overarching shared social-ecological basic attitudes of its members. This gives Consonance a special status in the German-speaking dating scene and distinguishes us in this overall constellation from all other matchmaking agencies, dating sites, or dating apps.
