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Diversity & Inclusive Online Dating and Friendship Search at Consonance (Gleichklang)

Inclusive Dating and Friendship Search

Diversity and inclusion are defining features of online dating, friendship search, and partner search at Consonance (Gleichklang). Through our psychological matching approach, we bring the relationship search of people of all genders, sexual orientations, and relationship models to success, as well as the friendship search and partner search of people with disabilities, illnesses, and neurodivergent individuals.

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Diversity and Inclusion at the Heart of Our Dating Community

In this section, comprehensive information is provided because diversity and inclusion are extensive topics. In one characteristic or another, we all actually belong to a minority. The more inclusively and appreciatively we handle diversity, the more it promotes our own happiness in life. For relationship search, the consideration of diversity and inclusion is of great importance and significantly shapes the matching structure of our dating platform.

Here you will find information about our approach to diversity and inclusion in the areas of sexual orientations, gender, monogamous and non-monogamous relationship forms, disabilities, illnesses, and neurodiversity (including autism and ADHD) as well as in various life realities such as single parents, high sensitivity, Absolute Beginners (people without relationship experience), people with special physical characteristics (e.g., short-statured, tall-statured, obesity) and people in precarious material and financial life circumstances.

Please feel free to use the table of contents to navigate directly to the information of interest to you.

Philosophy and Life Practice of Diversity in Online Dating

The appreciation of diversity and the inclusion of all people seeking relationships are part of the core philosophy of our meeting community. This includes the tolerance, acceptance, and active support of people with all legitimate sexual orientations, all relationship needs, and all gender identities.

Likewise, it includes the active support of partner search and friendship search for people with disabilities, with physical or mental illnesses, and for neurodiverse individuals — including people with high sensitivity, autism, or ADHD.

As a matchmaking service, friendship matching service, and dating platform, it is our aspiration to support people of the most diverse sexual orientations, relationship needs, gender identities, or life situations in their partner search, friendship search, and relationship search with all our capabilities and to show them genuine appreciation.

Sexual Orientations and Special Characteristics

In the area of sexual orientations and preferences, we support our heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and pansexual members in their partner search and friendship search. Likewise, we support members with other sexual orientations, preferences, or orientations in their partner search and friendship search, such as sapiosexuals (in sapiosexuality, high intelligence triggers sexual attraction), members with mutual BDSM preferences on the basis of mutual appreciation and voluntariness, as well as asexuals, which also includes the area of gray-asexuality.

Skoliosexuality refers to a sexual and romantic inclination toward people with non-binary gender identity. Skoliosexuals can specifically search for non-binary individuals at Consonance.

Demisexuality is defined by experiencing no sexual attraction outside of a love relationship. Demisexuals find relationships at Consonance by excluding all casual erotic contacts and specifying a slow beginning of sexuality as search criteria.

Consonance is open to all heterosexual, heteroflexible, and all queer individuals.

Furthermore, we support members with BDSM preferences in their search for partnership and friendship. By BDSM, we understand an interest in playful forms of dominance and submission, bondage games, or other ritualized expressions. Approximately 10% of the sexually active population is interested in BDSM, with corresponding fantasies occurring significantly more frequently. Studies show that a playful BDSM preference is not associated with psychopathological abnormalities or problematic personality traits.

Gender

In addition to the binary genders male and female, we recognize at Consonance (Gleichklang) that there are people who do not commit to a single gender, who stand between genders or beyond genders. Gender identity is diverse. It can be clear, open, fluid, or changeable (gender fluidity). Non-binary can be a gender in its own right, and it is possible to search for non-binary individuals.

Non-binary individuals who nevertheless feel more strongly aligned with the male or female gender can identify as non-binary male or non-binary female. In gender fluidity, classification as non-binary can occur or change over the course of one’s inner experience of gender identity.

Of course, transgender individuals also belong to our community. Transgender individuals can — according to their own experience — clearly locate themselves as male or female or identify as non-binary. Regardless of this, they can name their transgender status in our questionnaire and, if desired, specify that all suggested contacts must accept this status.

Intersexuality is also a valuable part of gender diversity in our world and in our community. Intersex individuals can choose the category non-binary for their self-designation and at the same time specify an acceptance requirement for their intersexuality for all suggestions.

We understand the term non-binary as a common umbrella term in the sense of genderqueer for all individuals who position themselves beyond a clear, permanently binary classification. This also includes gender-fluid individuals whose gender identity can vary depending on life experience and inner state.

At the same time:
Men and women who clearly feel aligned with being male or female also naturally belong to the diversity of our community.

We want all — regardless of whether they are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, queer, trans, non-binary, intersex, or genderfluid — to feel seen, respected, and welcome here. Our fundamental attitude is:

Every person is part of our community, and every identity is supported with equal respect.

Pansexuality and Pansexual Search

The pansexual search is particularly suitable for people who perceive a high fluidity in their sexual orientation or who are at the point where the gender identity of the other person no longer has any significance for their interest in a relationship. Pansexuality can be understood in this sense as an orientation in which being human itself — personality, contact, resonance, interpersonal depth — comes more to the fore than any gender or physical characteristic. For many people, pansexual experience is also an expansion of their own experiential world and their own gender perspectives.

Pansexuality functions as a space in which diversity is accepted, in which one’s own boundaries can be examined, and in which sexual, emotional, and personal openness can develop further. For some, pansexuality can also be an experimental framework in which different forms of contact or attraction can be explored without having to commit or define themselves.

Likewise, pansexual can be referred to as bi+ and overlaps with terms such as queer, omnisexual, polysexual, multisexual, or generally non-monosexual. These terms each express different nuances but share the fundamental recognition that attraction does not have to be limited to a single gender. Pansexuality particularly emphasizes that attraction is experienced regardless of gender or gender characteristics.

Omnisexuality describes a similar openness but emphasizes the conscious perception of all genders or gender characteristics as potentially attractive, without prioritizing or excluding them. While pansexuality largely brackets out the meaning or relevance of gender, omnisexuality explicitly recognizes the existence of diverse genders and experiences them as independent dimensions of attractiveness.

Furthermore, terms such as heteroflexible or homoflexible can be used when there is generally a non-monosexual orientation but typically a heterosexual or homosexual preference. These terms also create space for differentiated self-descriptions and support people in naming their identity realistically, self-acceptingly, and without rigid categories.

The common core of all these orientations — whether pansexual, omnisexual, bi+, queer, or hetero-/homoflexible — lies in an open, appreciative attitude toward one’s own sexual diversity and the diversity of other people.

Our community understands these orientations as equal expressions of human identity and supports all who find themselves in these categories or are still exploring their own orientation. Each of these self-designations can represent an important step toward self-acceptance and the expansion of one’s own relationship possibilities.

Monogamy, Open Relationships, Swinger Relationships, and Polyamory

We enable our members to specifically search for the sexual and romantic relationship models that correspond to their own experience. In addition to monogamous relationships, these can include various forms of consensual non-monogamy, including open relationships, swinger relationships, and polyamorous relationship forms (polyamory). People interested in polyandry (one woman has multiple partners) or polygyny (one man has multiple female partners) can also find what they are looking for at Consonance. Also included are platonic relationships, which are often, but by no means exclusively, sought by asexual individuals.

To create a shared understanding, we explain the basic models:

Monogamy refers to a two-person relationship in which sexual and romantic fidelity is agreed upon and lived exclusively.
Open relationships are two-person relationships in which sexual contacts with third parties are permitted, while love, bonding, and the central partnership remain exclusive.
Swinger relationships are two-person relationships in which couples engage in sexual contacts with others together, without affecting the romantic structure of the original relationship.
Polyamory is a relationship form in which people may have more than one romantic and sexual partner. This can extend to group relationships in which several people maintain both romantic and sexual relationships with each other.

For all relationship styles, the same basic principles apply: appreciation, acceptance, individuality, and honest reflection of one’s own wishes and longings form the basis for finding the appropriate relationship model.

We observe that non-binary individuals, as well as pansexual and bisexual individuals, have an above-average interest in non-monogamous relationship forms — i.e., open, polygamous, or polyamorous models. Likewise, of course, there are heterosexual individuals who seek relationship forms with consensual non-monogamy and find fulfillment in these models. At the same time, in all groups — non-binary, pansexual, bisexual, and heterosexual — there are people who exclusively seek monogamous relationships. The diversity of relationship styles is as great as the diversity of people themselves.

Psychological studies show that both monogamy and polygamy can lead to high relationship satisfaction when based on authenticity, transparency, and honesty. In contrast, a promised monogamy that is not kept (infidelity) is experienced as a serious breach of trust and is one of the most common reasons for separation.

By encouraging honest, self-reflective engagement with one’s own relationship wishes at Consonance and providing suitable search options, the likelihood of such breaches of trust decreases. At the same time, the chances of stable, fulfilling, and lasting relationships increase.

Through our differentiated queries, members can clearly articulate their own relationship needs and shape an active search that brings together people who want to live compatible relationship models — whether monogamous, open, polyamorous, polyandrous, polygynous, or platonic.

Authenticity and Openness

We consider the various gender identities, sexual orientations, sexual preferences, monogamous and polygamous relationship needs in our matchmaking to do justice to all members. We advocate for a society that accepts and values sexual, gender, and relationship diversity. We want our members not to hide from each other, not to begin their relationships with fears or dishonesty, but to be open with each other and to join together in relationships that truly become happy.

With this approach, we go beyond the practice of the major dating sites, matchmaking services, and singles sites, which typically only consider heterosexuality and homosexuality and only sometimes bisexuality. We feel connected to all people beyond their sexual orientation and gender identity and thereby simultaneously recognize the sexual orientation and gender identity of all members of our community. Our heterosexual members with binary gender and our LGBTQ+ members both belong to the core of our community. In our evaluations of the success rates at Consonance (Gleichklang), we are pleased to find that the various gender identities and sexual orientations essentially have the same matchmaking chances.

Equal Opportunities for People with Disabilities, Illnesses, and Neurodiverse Individuals

“In a world where people with handicaps are doubly handicapped, you should not be alone but be strong together.”

Inclusion and Accessibility in Online Dating, Matchmaking, and Friendship Search

At Consonance (Gleichklang), inclusion is the central leitmotif — in partner search, in matchmaking, in friendship search, in friendship matching, and in online dating. Our goal is to open up genuine and equal opportunities for all people for relationships, friendships, communities, projects, and encounters that strengthen life.

At Consonance, we therefore design matchmaking and friendship search so that members with physical or mental illnesses, disabilities, autism, ADHD, or other neurodiverse or neurodivergent characteristics have the same chances of success as all other members. The same applies to autistics and individuals with ADHD, whose partner search and friendship search we effectively support at Consonance with special queries and matching methods.

Dating for people with disabilities, partner search for autistics, or friendship search for people with ADHD are not separate side paths at Consonance but naturally belong to the core of our community.

The Inclusive Approach to Partner Search and Friendship Search

People with limitations or special life circumstances often report misunderstandings, devaluations, or invisibility from classic dating apps. Many are not seen as whole persons but only through the lens of their illness or characteristic.

Consonance sets a different focus here:

We see people as a whole — with their personality, their values, their needs, their hopes for partnership, friendship, community, or shared projects. That is why our online dating is consciously designed to be low-barrier and combines matchmaking and friendship matching with a concept that reduces prejudice and promotes openness.

The Acceptance Principle: Heart of an Inclusive Matchmaking and Friendship Matching Service

Our acceptance principle makes partner search, matchmaking, friendship search, and friendship matching truly accessible for many people for the first time:

Members can indicate whether they have a physical illness, mental illness, disability, autism, ADHD, HIV, or sexual dysfunction, and whether they would like this life reality to be considered in partner search or friendship search.
Other members can actively indicate that they are open to dating, partnership, or friendship with people who have such characteristics.

In this way, our matchmaking and friendship matching connects people who accept each other — regardless of whether someone has an illness or limitation or not.

This creates an online dating experience that does not separate but connects:

People find each other because they feel similarly, hope similarly, and seek similar things — whether partnership, friendship, community, or shared projects.

Inclusion Instead of Segmentation: Why We Work Differently from Specialized Apps

Many dating apps for people with disabilities work on the principle of segregation:

People with limitations are almost exclusively matched with people with limitations.

Consonance (Gleichklang) follows a fundamentally different approach:

Our matchmaking and friendship matching are not based on exclusion but on acceptance.

This means:

People with disabilities or illnesses are not automatically matched only with each other but with all who bring openness for partner search, friendship search, community, or shared projects.

In this way, online dating at Consonance becomes a space in which diversity is natural and no one has to explain or justify themselves.

At the same time, through articles in our Psychology Blog, we also encourage our members to reflect on reservations and develop more openness toward relationships with people with disabilities and illnesses.

An important difference between partner search for people with disabilities at Consonance and a dating app for disabled people lies in inclusion:

Partner Search, Matchmaking, Friendship Search, and Online Dating with Physical Illnesses, Chronic Conditions, and Mobility Impairments

For many people with physical illnesses or chronic conditions, it is difficult to become visible in classic dating or online dating. They ask themselves how others will react, whether they should mention their illness or disability in their profile, when they can do so — and how they can avoid being reduced to their limitation.

Consonance therefore pursues a matchmaking and friendship matching approach that understands physical illnesses and mobility impairments as part of human diversity. Our goal:

To support people in their partner search, friendship search, and online dating so that they have real chances — for relationships, friendships, community, or shared projects.

Acceptance Creates Security in Partner Search, Dating, and Friendship Search

With our acceptance principle, we create a partner search and friendship search that is based on mutual openness.
The principle works equally in matchmaking, friendship matching, and online dating:

Members can indicate whether they have a physical illness, disability, or mobility impairment and whether this should be considered in partner search or friendship search.
Other members can expressly signal that they are open to dating, partnership, or friendship with people who bring such physical or chronic characteristics.

This creates a dating and online dating context in which people with physical illnesses do not have to fear encountering unprepared prejudices. Matchmaking and friendship matching ensure that chosen contacts are based on acceptance — not on uncertainty or ignorance.

This significantly facilitates partner search and friendship search: it becomes safer, more respectful, and more humane.

Partner Search and Online Dating with Mobility Impairments and Wheelchair Use

People in wheelchairs or with limited mobility often face additional hurdles in online dating. Many report uncertainties, unexplained withdrawals, or sudden contact breaks in classic dating apps. This is often less due to a lack of attractiveness than to the uncertainty of other people.

Consonance addresses these difficulties structurally:

Members can indicate whether a wheelchair situation or mobility impairment exists. Likewise, other members can declare their willingness to get to know people with mobility impairments.

This mutual system ensures that partner search, matchmaking, friendship search, friendship matching, and online dating for people with limited mobility do not happen by chance but consciously and appreciatively.

It also helps people seeking communities or shared projects to find suitable contacts because the foundation of mutual acceptance has already been laid by the system.

Partner Search with Chronic Physical Illnesses

Illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, rheumatism, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or heart disease affect daily life but not dignity, the capacity to love, or the right to build stable relationships, friendships, or communities.

However, many people experience uncertainties in dating or online dating:

“When do I talk about my illness?”
“How do I avoid being dismissed or prematurely judged?”
“Are there people who can handle this?”

Yes — and Consonance ensures that exactly these people find each other. Through the combination of partner search, matchmaking, friendship search, friendship matching, and online dating with the acceptance principle, we achieve:

People with chronic illnesses can openly indicate that acceptance is important to them.
Other members can just as openly signal that they are willing to build a relationship, friendship, or collaboration in community or projects with chronically ill people.

With the help of acceptance-based matchmaking, we can significantly facilitate partner search for people with disabilities. By ensuring acceptance, a more relaxed and serene partner search and friendship search becomes possible. Rejections are reduced, and the whole person is the focus.

Partner Search, Matchmaking, Friendship Search, and Online Dating with Mental Illnesses, Sexual Dysfunctions, and HIV

Mental illnesses are among the most common reasons why people encounter hurdles in dating, online dating, partner search, or friendship search. Many feel misunderstood, some are ashamed, others withdraw — not because they do not want love, friendship, or community, but because they expect uncertainty, stigmatization, or prejudice.

Consonance therefore designs partner search, matchmaking, friendship search, friendship matching, and online dating so that people with mental health challenges are protected, seen, and welcome. Our acceptance principle enables them to enter relationships, friendships, or projects not defensively but confidently.

Partner Search and Online Dating with Mental Illnesses

People with mental illnesses or psychological problems often find partner search and friendship search even more difficult than people with physical illnesses. Some lack drive, others suffer from anxieties, causing them to withdraw socially. Also, understanding for mental illnesses is often lower than for physical illnesses.

Many people with depression, anxiety disorders, panic disorder, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, or psychotic experiences report that classic dating overwhelms or hurts them. The fear of being misunderstood often leads to withdrawal.

With the acceptance principle, we can also enable effective matchmaking and friendship search for people with mental illnesses such as anxieties (panic disorder, social phobia), depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, personality disorders, or psychosis, and improve the social networking of these members.

Consonance counteracts the difficulties of friendship search and partner search for people with mental illnesses through a system that neither romanticizes nor stigmatizes mental illnesses but embeds them realistically and respectfully in partner search and friendship search.

Members can indicate:

whether mental illnesses should be considered in their partner search, friendship search, or online dating
and other members can actively indicate that they are open to a relationship, friendship, community, or shared project with people with mental illnesses

This way, our matchmaking and friendship matching connects people who are willing to accept each other — and thus creates a safe space from the very beginning. A dating context emerges that strengthens trust, reduces shame, and makes the whole person visible.

Dating, Partner Search, and Friendship Search with Sexual Dysfunctions

Almost one in five adults suffers at some point from sexual dysfunctions, such as impotence, erectile dysfunction, delayed or premature orgasm, cramping during sexual intercourse (e.g., vaginismus), or other pain during sexuality (e.g., dyspareunia). Such sexual dysfunctions often — and actually unjustifiably — go hand in hand with shame and anxiety and thus hinder partner search, as well as the search for friendships that may include eroticism. In reality, such sexual dysfunctions do not pose a real obstacle to a positively experienced sexuality or a partnership relationship if they are dealt with openly.

Many people with sexual dysfunctions believe that dating, partner search, or friendship search with erotic components is difficult. However, people with sexual dysfunctions do not need to fear partner search at Consonance but can find suitable other members through our acceptance principle who do not see sexual dysfunction as an obstacle to a partnership relationship:

Members can indicate whether a sexual dysfunction exists
Whether they would like this to be considered in partner search, friendship search, or online dating
Likewise, other members can declare their openness

This creates a matchmaking and friendship matching that does not make sexuality a taboo area but a potential field of shared development. Relationships, friendships, or communities can develop here because people know:

Acceptance is secured before intimacy even begins.

Partner Search, Matchmaking, Friendship Search, and Online Dating on the Autism Spectrum and with ADHD

Many autistics or people on the autism spectrum experience in classic dating or online dating that their particularities are not understood or are misinterpreted. Some feel overwhelmed in apps, some withdraw, some experience permanent misunderstandings in communication. This affects people across the entire autism spectrum — including those who continue to use Asperger’s as a self-designation.

Consonance designs partner search, matchmaking, friendship search, friendship matching, and online dating so that autistics are not merely included but consciously welcomed. For us, partner search for autistics, dating on the autism spectrum, friendship search for autistics, or the search for communities and projects for neurodivergent people is not a special area — but an integral part of our community.

Partner Search, Dating, and Friendship Matching with Autism

Many autistics explicitly do not want to be referred to as “people with autism” but as autistics. We respect this form.
At the same time, we use — for search engines, orientation, and findability — terms such as autism spectrum, autism, Asperger’s, dating for autistics, or online dating for neurodivergent individuals.

Our matching system enables:

Autistics to indicate whether they would like their autism and neurodivergent identity to be considered in partner search and friendship search.
Other members to indicate that they are willing and open to enter into a partnership, friendship, community, or shared project with autistics.

This creates a matchmaking and friendship matching environment in which neurodivergent individuals do not have to fight to be understood — because acceptance is already secured before the first contact.

Partner Search and Online Dating on the Autism Spectrum

Many autistics report that through the ability to transparently present autism or Asperger’s in their profile, they can communicate more relaxed for the first time. For others, it is important to enter partner search or friendship search unfiltered and only talk about autism in personal contact.

Both are possible. Consonance does not force autistics into a specific model — we create options.

Our experience shows:

Autistics find suitable contacts more quickly when acceptance has been clarified in advance.
At the same time, there are surprisingly many members who are open to relationships or friendships with people on the autism spectrum.
Many even explicitly wish for neurodivergent partners because they value their authenticity, directness, and reliability.

In our evaluations, we find that this option is very well received by autistic members and significantly facilitates partner search for autistics. At the same time, we find that there is a significant number of members who can well imagine a relationship with individuals on the autism spectrum.

Partner Search, Dating, and Friendship Matching with ADHD

At Consonance, we also specifically support the friendship search and partner search with ADHD. Singles with ADHD also have greater difficulties in building and maintaining partnership relationships.

For people with ADHD, it is important to meet other people in their partner search who are characterized by patience, acceptance, and tolerance toward their ADHD. Such partners can also have ADHD themselves but do not have to.

Understanding for ADHD is the decisive factor that can enable a happy and stable partnership. Accordingly, we apply the same acceptance criterion in our matchmaking for ADHD individuals that we also use for disabilities, illnesses, or autism. This enables our members with ADHD to have high prospects in their partner search, as well as in their friendship search.

In our matchmaking, friendship matching, and online dating, members with ADHD can indicate that acceptance is important to them. Other members can express that they are open to building a partnership, friendship, or shared project with people affected by ADHD.

Studies — as well as our own Consonance survey — show that relationships with ADHD succeed particularly well when understanding and emotional tolerance are present. This is exactly what our acceptance principle is for.

HIV in Online Dating, Partner Search, and Friendship Search: Knowledge, Safety, and Real Opportunities

HIV is an area where medical reality and societal perceptions often diverge greatly. Many HIV-positive people experience stigmatization due to outdated beliefs.

Consonance therefore designs partner search, matchmaking, friendship search, friendship matching, and online dating explicitly on the basis of modern medicine:

With effective therapy, HIV is not transmissible.
HIV-positive partners can also have children.
HIV-positive people today have the same life expectancy as HIV-negative people.

Thus, partner search, friendship search, and online dating with HIV-positive people are completely unproblematic — the challenge lies solely in societal perception.

Our acceptance principle brings this reality into matchmaking and friendship matching:

HIV-positive members can indicate that their HIV infection should be considered
other members can openly indicate that they are willing to build dating, friendship, partnership, or shared projects with HIV-positive people

Acceptance for an HIV infection is not for objective reasons but due to the will of those concerned, another criterion at Consonance, which is experienced by many members with HIV infection as relieving and helpful for their online dating. In this way, partner search, online dating, and friendship search emerge that are based on knowledge rather than prejudice.

Conclusion: Matchmaking and Friendship Matching for People with Disabilities, Illnesses, Mental Illnesses, Neurodiversity, or HIV

We make friendship search and partner search for people with disabilities, physical illnesses, mental illnesses, sexual dysfunctions, or autism/Asperger’s syndrome relaxed and effective through the provision of the acceptance principle. Because disabled or ill members can gain increased security at Consonance that they will not be rejected solely because of their disability or illness by other members shown to them.

By entering all these search criteria, members with disabilities, illnesses, or impairments can ensure that only members with acceptance for disabilities or illnesses are suggested to them. This reduces the fear of rejection in online dating and increases the effectiveness of partner search and friendship search.

Members can decide for themselves whether to use the acceptance principle or to align the matchmaking to all members without considering their disability, illness, or impairment in order to enter into unfiltered contact and possibly enable new perspectives in this direct contact. At Consonance (Gleichklang), those affected decide this themselves.

Our evaluations show that we actually succeed in effectively supporting the partner search and friendship search of members with disabilities, illnesses, or impairments. Members with disabilities and illnesses successfully complete their partner search or friendship search at Consonance just as often as members without illnesses or disabilities.

Inclusion of Different Life Realities: Single Parents, High Sensitivity, Absolute Beginners, People with Special Physical Characteristics, and People in Precarious Financial Life Situations

“In a world where single mothers and fathers stand alone, you should not be alone but live family and love.”

Dating for Single Parents

Single mothers and fathers often experience partner search as difficult. They have to manage parenting, household, and career, leaving fewer resources for partner search. At the same time, only a person who can handle their life situation and role as a single parent well and accept it positively is suitable for a new partnership. In addition, many single parents are financially constrained and cannot afford expensive matchmaking services.

But many single parents also face limitations in their other social networks, and their friendship search is often made more difficult.

At Consonance (Gleichklang), we have therefore identified single mothers and fathers, as well as parents of any gender identity, as a group we particularly want to support. We implement this through several strategies:

Consonance is significantly more affordable than other comparable dating platforms, and we also offer reduced rates that make participation in online dating and friendship search possible for everyone. This addresses the often strained financial situation of single parents.
At Consonance, only people who are very serious about seeking social relationships are found. The many fake profiles, picture collectors, or purely fun profiles that exist on dating apps do not exist with us. Single parents have fewer resources to deal with these spam profiles and are also particularly vulnerable to fraudulent offers or love scamming. We manually check every single profile at Consonance. This high level of security in online dating and friendship search particularly benefits single mothers, fathers, and parents. At Consonance, only members who have paid a membership fee are included, which already keeps away a number of people with dishonest intentions. In addition, Consonance members on average are characterized by increased sensitivity and vigilance and will quickly inform us about attempts to misuse our community, so that we can act immediately. 100% security does not exist, but at Consonance, security is higher than on dating apps and also than on other matchmaking services and singles sites. Especially for single mothers, this is an important reason to trust Consonance in their partner search and friendship search.
We support our single parent members through our matching algorithm: All members are asked whether there is acceptance for a partnership or friendship with a single parent or not. Single parent members are only suggested members for whom their role as a single parent does not pose any problem. This makes it significantly easier for single parents to meet new partners or friends. However, we do not allow targeted searching for single parents because this would increase the risk of misuse.
Especially for single parents, our contact lists “Projects and Communities” and “Nature Activities” are also interesting. This way, they can look for new solidarity-based activities near their place of residence and expand their social network.

For our single parents, our matchmaking at Consonance is therefore designed to maximize the effectiveness and security of their partner search and friendship search and to enable them to expand their social network. Our evaluations show that single parents achieve comparable matchmaking rates to other members.

At Consonance (Gleichklang), we are oriented toward diversity and, of course, support single parent members of all legitimate sexual orientations and gender identities in their partner search, friendship search, and further social networking. A study shows that children from single-parent families have increased psychosocial problems, which is also linked to the more frequent occurrence of poverty in single-parent families. The same study showed that the sexual orientation of parents had no negative influence.

Our dating community supports single parents in their search for love relationships and friendships, which can also have a positive effect on their children. We try to compensate for the diverse societal difficulties that single parents and single-parent families face through our low fees and discounts.

“In a world that is loud and ruthless, you should not be alone but live empathetically together.”

Dating for Highly Sensitive People

Our online dating at Consonance (Gleichklang) particularly appeals to highly sensitive people. In addition to building emotionally stable partnerships, highly sensitive individuals can meet other highly sensitive people for friendships, exchange, and shared vacation and relaxation time.

In our matchmaking for highly sensitive people, our highly sensitive members can make the right selection decisions for themselves:

Search for other highly sensitive individuals
Getting to know non-highly sensitive individuals who have a high level of acceptance and appreciation for high sensitivity

Our highly sensitive members have the same options in their friendship search.

What Is High Sensitivity?

High sensitivity is also referred to in English as Environmental Sensitivity or Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS). High Sensitive Person (HSP) is another very well-known term in the English-speaking world for highly sensitive individuals. In German-speaking countries, the term Feinfühligkeit (sensitivity) is also used. The term zartbesaitet (tender-hearted) is also related.

Highly sensitive or sensitive individuals are characterized by very detailed perception, multifaceted fantasies and thoughts, as well as a high capacity for intuition. They also possess: a strong inner experience of music or art, pronounced empathy and compassion, and intense emotional experience.

People with high sensitivity also often have an interest in meditation, yoga, or spirituality.

Frequently, there is also increased vulnerability. In very intense, loud, glaring, turbulent, or hostile environmental conditions, sensory overload can occur.

Effects of High Sensitivity

People with high sensitivity are characterized by a particular intensity, detail, and depth of their perception and other inner cognitive-emotional sensations and evaluation patterns. Under favorable conditions, this can have a positive impact on well-being, success, and quality of life. However, under unfavorable conditions, it can also lead to mood swings and difficulties in social relationships within the context of sensory overload. High sensitivity is embedded in the area of neurodiversity. A distinction is made between neurotypical and neurodivergent or neurodiverse individuals. For a good fit between partners and friends, consideration of neurodiversity is necessary.

High Sensitivity and Relationships

In friendships and partnerships, problems arise primarily when non-highly sensitive partners or friends cannot interpret and understand the reactions of highly sensitive individuals. This can lead to conflicts and, in the worst case, to separations.

In a survey of highly sensitive individuals, we found that many highly sensitive people describe partnerships with other highly sensitive individuals as more fulfilling than partnerships with non-highly sensitive people. Overall, highly sensitive individuals reported much more emotional and intimate relationships with highly sensitive people than with non-highly sensitive individuals.

A similar result was found in a survey on friendships:

Highly sensitive people showed a particular interest in meeting other highly sensitive people. They reported experiencing mutual high sensitivity as an important enrichment for a friendship.

In a further survey, we found that highly sensitive people are more balanced and emotionally stable the more they have a likewise highly sensitive social environment.

However, highly sensitive people can also be happy with non-highly sensitive individuals if they show understanding.

For particularly sensitive individuals, it is therefore a helpful path to search for other sensitive and highly sensitive people. Because without an understanding of the high sensitivity of relationship partners, significant problems can arise in relationships. Accordingly, according to our surveys, many highly sensitive singles also wish for a shared high sensitivity in their future relationship.

Friendship Search and Partner Search for Highly Sensitive People

At Consonance (Gleichklang), we have made it our mission to support our highly sensitive members in their partner search and friendship search:

With the help of our psychological matching algorithm, highly sensitive members can meet other members as partners and friends who are also highly sensitive. Or they can also meet people who have a high basic understanding of highly sensitive ways of experiencing.

Versatile Highly Sensitive Online Dating

Especially for highly sensitive people, the search for suitable projects, communities, or professional collaborations can be helpful, which we enable as another core service at Consonance. In a survey of highly sensitive individuals, we found that there are specific highly sensitive career paths. High sensitivity influences the experiences and satisfaction people have in their careers. Consonance members can search for opportunities and people for professional change under the contact list “Career and Vocation.”

We are currently the only platform for online dating, friendship search, and social networking that specifically supports highly sensitive individuals in building relationships in all life situations. On other matchmaking services, dating apps, or singles sites, high sensitivity plays no role. Therefore, it is often difficult for highly sensitive people to meet suitable people there.

Consonance Matching for Highly Sensitive People (HSPs)

Here is how our psychological matching algorithm works for our members with high sensitivity:

All members are asked whether they have high sensitivity. They are also asked whether suggested individuals should also be highly sensitive. Or they can indicate that understanding is sufficient.
Furthermore, all members are asked whether there is acceptance for a partnership or friendship with a highly sensitive Consonance member.
On the basis of these questions, we can ensure precise matching: People with high sensitivity receive suggestions of other highly sensitive individuals or at least people with understanding. Our highly sensitive members decide for themselves whether they want to restrict matchmaking or friendship matching to other highly sensitive individuals, or whether people with understanding are also eligible.
You can assess yourself with the test “Am I highly sensitive?“. This was developed by Consonance psychologist Guido F. Gebauer. We offer the test free of charge. This test is the first freely available test for high sensitivity (HSP) based on a comprehensive scientific, psychological, and statistical foundation. The details are explained in this article.

High Success Rates for Highly Sensitive People

Our evaluations show that our matchmaking for highly sensitive people actually works. Highly sensitive members are even slightly more likely to achieve success in their partner search and friendship search than non-highly sensitive members.

Getting to know others and online dating at Consonance (Gleichklang) is therefore a particularly effective way, especially when high sensitivity exists, to bring your search for partnership, friendship, travel companions, professional collaborations, projects, or communities to success.

Resources on High Sensitivity at Consonance (Gleichklang)

Psychological findings show that for highly sensitive individuals, knowledge of their own high sensitivity is an important step on the path to balance, positive feelings, and equilibrium. We therefore provide our members with additional resources (tests for high sensitivity, information, coaching) to better recognize and understand possible high sensitivity:

The High Sensitivity Test (HSP Test) determines whether highly sensitive processing patterns are present. The High Sensitivity Structure Test (HSST Test) captures, in addition to general high sensitivity, seven specific dimensions of highly sensitive processing patterns.
Our partner site hochsensible.eu provides information on questions of high sensitivity from a sound psychological perspective and offers numerous advice and recommendations on how highly sensitive individuals can find a balanced and fulfilling life balance. The article “Everything About High Sensitivity” provides a comprehensive summary of psychological findings on high sensitivity.
There is also the option for highly sensitive individuals to take individual coaching with Dr. Guido F. Gebauer, co-founder of Consonance, who developed the matching algorithm and the high sensitivity tests.

“In a world that normalizes people, you should not be alone but overcome all barriers.”

Dating for Special Physical Characteristics

We also need to consider appearance in our matchmaking to maximize relationship opportunities for all our members. The psychological reality of life is that appearance characteristics influence our dating and relationship behavior. We advocate for freeing ourselves as much as possible from these influences. At the same time, we also align our matching algorithm to support members who otherwise fear rejection due to physical characteristics and may even resign themselves from partner search or other forms of relationship search.

Regardless of appearance, every person can find partnership and friendship. For every physical special characteristic, there are people who are not bothered by it at all or even find it appealing. As a meeting community, it is important to us that no one is excluded who fits the core values of the community. We want all members to have high chances of meeting someone. With our acceptance settings, we strive to find solutions for members who unfortunately encounter rejection more often on online platforms, such as members with fuller body shapes, short-statured people, etc.

Appearance plays a role in partner selection. However, studies show that relationship satisfaction is not or hardly influenced by the perceived physical attractiveness of partners. Moreover, the perception of attractiveness is not fixed and unchangeable. Often, a second look or getting to know someone better can lead to a changed impression. For example, people who like each other tend to find each other more attractive than if they did not like each other. Cultural factors also influence the perception of attractiveness.

Likewise, there are people for whom appearance plays only a minor or even no role in partner search. This applies, for example, to people who identify as sapiosexual. Sapiosexuality is a preference for people with high intelligence, intellectuality, or broad general knowledge. The perception of high intelligence or intellectuality in another person triggers sexual attraction in sapiosexual individuals.

At Consonance (Gleichklang), we take a two-pronged approach to enable effective online dating for people of all physical characteristics:

We inform our members about psychological research findings and advise them to allow themselves a second look and not to reject others prematurely based on appearance.
We have established an acceptance principle in our matchmaking. We ask our members about their acceptance of certain characteristics and then use this as a basis for suggestions. This enables people who fear rejection to have a more relaxed and therefore more effective online dating experience, and allows us to find suitable people even for members with physical characteristics that often reduce the chances of successful matchmaking in online dating.

In our matchmaking, we therefore ensure from the outset that all suggested members have acceptance for the corresponding characteristics or view these special features positively. Thus, partner search at Consonance has fewer barriers caused by these physical characteristics.

Based on surveys and other feedback, we can see that there are a number of members who can flexibilize their appearance-related preferences and benefit sustainably from this. After all, relationship quality is largely determined by compatibility of values, which are independent of appearance.

Consonance (Gleichklang) is an inclusive dating community whose fundamental attitude is already oriented so that acceptance is often high and barriers are lower than in the general population. We try to further promote and deepen this through regular articles in our Psychology Blog on this topic.

In addition, through the acceptance principle in our suggestion generation, we can ensure that the likelihood of rejections due to physical characteristics is further reduced. This lowers dating anxieties and inhibitions. Effective matchmaking thus becomes possible, for example, for people with higher body weight or overweight, such as curvy or Rubenesque figures, as well as people with unusual body heights, such as short-statured or exceptionally tall people.

Absolute Beginners: Support for People Without Previous Relationship Experience

At Consonance (Gleichklang), we support those who have not yet had romantic or sexual relationship experiences. A large survey on the motives and causes of Absolute Beginner status clearly showed that many of these members feel a special need for support. Repeatedly described were well-founded fears of being rejected in partner or even friendship search due to previous lack of relationships. This concern can lead those affected to postpone or not even begin their search, even though they desire stable relationships.

We explicitly encourage Absolute Beginners to engage confidently in partner search and friendship search and combine this encouragement with a structural protective mechanism based on our acceptance principle:

All members are asked whether a relationship with an Absolute Beginner is acceptable to them.
Absolute Beginners can (if desired) specify that they should only be suggested people for whom this acceptance exists. In this way, the risk of rejections based solely on the previous lack of relationship experience can be significantly reduced.
This creates a space in which encounters from the very beginning are based on openness and mutual appreciation.

Our internal evaluations show that Absolute Beginners, when they actively pursue the search and use this structural support, have comparable chances of finding a relationship as all other members. The ability to engage with others without fear of unjustified rejection strengthens self-confidence and serenity and creates favorable conditions for successful relationship building.

Partner Search and Friendship Search for People in Precarious Material and Financial Life Situations

More and more people are in precarious financial situations. The first and most important step is that they are not excluded at Consonance but are expressly welcome. Through our solidarity-based and communally supported fee system, we can reduce the annual contribution for people in financial hardship to 24 EUR, to 6, or — in cases of urgent need — to a symbolic euro.

These discounts are granted without complication and without stigmatization once short contact with our team is made. Consonance is thus the only dating platform in the German-speaking area and one of the few internationally that is available to all people in all their life situations regardless of their financial resources.

However, financial discounts alone are not sufficient to effectively support people in precarious situations in their relationship or friendship search:

Our own comprehensive study on the effects of material burdens on online dating clearly showed how often people in financial need report reservations, rejections, and a feeling of hopelessness. Many no longer feel able to engage in online dating or even friendship search, burdened by the experience of having been generally excluded or devalued in advance. The consequences are deep-seated fears, resignation, and the feeling of having no more chances.

Our acceptance principle addresses exactly this point:

All members are asked whether they can imagine a relationship with a person whose financial situation is precarious. The question can be answered with yes, no, or “maybe.”
People who find themselves in a strained financial situation can specify that they should only be made suggestions where this acceptance is given.
This way, they can begin their search without immediately encountering rejection again and receive suggestions where appreciation and openness are present from the start.

Minimalism as a Path to More Connection

At the same time, Consonance promotes knowledge about a minimalist lifestyle in which consumption is not the focus. The desire for a minimalist lifestyle can also be specified in our search criteria and is considered in the matching.

Studies show that materialism has a negative effect on life happiness and relationships and that a minimalist lifestyle is more sustainable in the long term and can be associated with increased life happiness.

For many of our members, this approach creates the foundation to let relationships grow not through material criteria but through values, connection, and shared life visions. We advise all our members to take this path.

Partner Search and Friendship Search for All Age Groups

At Consonance (Gleichklang), members of all age groups from 18 to over 90 are represented, seeking love relationships, friendships, travel companions, projects, and communities. The average age of our members is 50. Accordingly, we also particularly care about supporting online dating from age 50 and online dating for seniors. In the area of friendships, projects, and communities, we also advocate for intergenerational encounters.

What Inclusion and Diversity Mean for Everyone

Some think diversity and inclusion have nothing to do with them. Currently, a societal mood is spreading that wants to place the preservation of the majority back in the foreground. Diversity is seen by some as political correctness that undermines the general values of society. In fact, however, this development is highly dangerous, and its ideological foundation contradicts fundamental scientific and psychological findings.

Diversity and inclusion do not promote individuals at the expense of others but are a guarantee for a humane and solidarity-based society for all of us. Think of those in Trump’s America who enthusiastically advocated for restrictive immigration policies and whose family members are now themselves being deported. Or think of those (few) who deliberately say not LGBT but only LGB in order to exclude transgender people from the queer community. We see this everywhere. First, anti-trans policies are directed against transgender people and later against all members of the LGBTQ+ community. Once again, Trump’s America is an instructive current example of this.

But it is not only obvious minorities that are affected. Once we create space for a non-diverse society, one day we will be the next. Because at some point, we are all in a minority and can quickly become the focus of exclusionary politics of a society that rejects diversity and inclusion.

At Consonance (Gleichklang), we do not follow exclusionary societal trends but place inclusion and diversity at the forefront of our work in the relationship field — and thus in an area that is of utmost importance for human happiness in life. We want to give not only members of “traditional minorities” but the entire community the feeling of being in the right place here.