Christmas is generally a time when people look forward and re-evaluate where they are, a clinical psychotherapist has said.
Stephanie Regan said while romances may bloom over the festive season, January is when most relationships break down.
She told The Pat Kenny Show December is a month for big change.
"I think it's inevitably a time that people do turn their mind to new year, new beginning, a new me," she said.
"People do look at love in the new year, it becomes a very busy time.
"I would say to you it is my busiest time because relationships that do not work tend to end in January.
"So, there's two sides of things there.
"Already even this week I'm dealing with a lot of single people who I find are struggling a little bit with the loneliness factor."
'Doing things automatically'
Ms Regan said now is the time to look at how we can improve ourselves.
"What I would be saying in that kind of scenario is think about love in the New Year, think about some slight reset for yourself, think about what needs tweaking within your own self-talk," she said.
She said people should think about what they're doing and how they're living "and review it - that's what we all do every year."
"We do an awful lot of things automatically - we do them in our workplace, we do them in our lives - and they determine how we act and behave.
"We do the same in love, there's a lot of things in relationships that we are just primed for and we sometimes need to review that.
"In many ways that's what therapy does: it helps you to review that inner-talk."
'Detective work'
Ms Regan said people may need to change the messages they are telling themselves.
"Are you saying to yourself for example, in terms of love, 'Oh, it never happens for me'.
"I hear that quite a lot... you have to look at what's behind that and why do you think that, and are there good reasons why things are not working out.
"It's a little bit of detective work in many ways, emotional and psychological, and in that way that's how we sort it out".
Ms Regan said people have to get out there and be involved.
"Not just in dating apps, not just in the world of looking and searching, but you also have to be out the front door," she said.
"You have to be engaged in life, you have to not just go to work and come home and then go on your dating apps.
"You have to really take 100% responsibility for your own life, enjoyment and happiness and then love is part of that".
Ms Regan said people should also take some caution, as a recent survey showed two-thirds of people on Tinder were already married.
"What often happens is people are at the end of relationships or they've recently separated, or they are browsing because the relationship is breaking and they are looking around," she said.
She added that people shouldn't go on dating apps with a blind confidence or belief about what they see in front of them.
