Hello. My bf who I have been dating for 6 months (living with for 1 month)and I are very much in love and things are mostly great, except for the fact that it seems like I do most of the talking and I take charge most of the time in our relationship. I would like to feel more like we're a team, but most of the time I feel relatively alone. I have talked to him about these feelings before and he apologizes for his actions and agrees to try to improve things, but this is kind of an issue that continues to get me down. The thing is that I don't really know if things are really better than I'm perceiving them to be and it's just other things getting me down or if it's really his lack of communication. For example, when i'm talking I usually go on a lot about a certain topic and then he only responds when he feels necessary, but there's times when I'm talking that I find it difficult to tell if he's really listening and it really hurts. I told him directly that it would really help if he just nodded or told me if he agreed or didn't agree with things I said. I am not talking about one conversation in particular. I just mean I would like to know his perspective on everything when we're talking. Sometimes he will tell me that he agrees or feels the same, but I always have to ask how he feels first. He doesn't disagree with me very often either, he usually just goes along with what I say or feel. I think that is how he honestly feels and that is okay, but he doesn't really add anything to the conversation to make it more interesting and include himself. I hope you understand what i'm saying here. I really want us to communicate better so we can have a great lasting long-term relationship. Do you have any tips for better communication? I really don't think this is something he is doing on purpose because he has had a very tough and sheltered past (the same goes for me, but I came out of my shell a little before our relationship). He has never had a serious relationship with anyone before me and he is 29 years old so sometimes I think he is just not familiar with how to communicate in a relationship.