Emotionally Focused Therapy is an individual, couples, and family therapy approach developed by the psychologists Leslie Greenberg and Susan Johnson. The approach is based on John Bowlby's attachment theory and detailed analyses of videotapes documenting therapy sessions. Clients gain an understanding of their emotional mechanisms and more effective ways to process and respond to them. They learn to identify the cycle they are trapped in, break free from it, and make room for the vulnerable parts of each of them. A series of academic studies supports the effectiveness of the approach.
Imago is an approach developed by Dr. Harville Hendrix and his wife Helen LaKelly Hunt in the late 20th century. It combines psychological theory about the developmental journey and its present-day implications, practical communication tools, and a general philosophy of life. Imago can be used in individual, couples, family, or organizational counseling. One of the advantages of the method is that you can implement it at home, even after counseling ends, and continue to grow as individuals, as a couple, and as a family towards a more fulfilling and happy life.
The psychologist Hedi Schleifer developed Encounter-centered Couples Therapy® (or Transforamtion) based on the Imago approach, Martin Buber's philosophy, and several other sources, as well as her own experience and developments. The approach aims for a substantial and sustainable transformation in the couple's relationship and in each partner individually. This approach can also be taken home into life after counseling. You will learn how to turn your partnership into an adventure and a laboratory of growth within a safe and warm space.
In addition to the EFT and Imago approaches to families, I also borrow from humanistic psychotherapy, from classical approaches to family therapy such as structural and systemic counseling or the contextual approach. Structural counseling (Minukhin, Whitaker, Bowen, etc.) looks at the family as a system striving for equilibrium, tracing the dynamics between the family trying to stabilize the system, and the individuals within it whose needs have changed. The contextual approach (Nage) emphasizes intergenerational inheritance, types of loyalties, and entitlements in the family.
The main tools I use in counseling are encounter therapy, imago, and EFT, but I recognize that not every approach is suitable for every couple and every situation, and therefore I combine additional approaches such as AEDP, rapprochement communication, schema therapy, bibliotherapy, and more. At the end of the day, each couple or family creates a unique group with me that does not exist anywhere else, and together we create our own language, our counseling space, and the most beneficial ways to move forward. I also bring to the counseling room my personal and professional experience, my "I believe," my feelings, my personality, and my uncompromising desire to be there for you.
The trust and confidence that is built in the room are key to any counseling approach. In all the approaches I draw from you will find elements of empathy, reflection and affirmation, and all of them center on the relationship (both between you and between you and me). Our shared goal is that you will emerge from the counseling session a different person/couple/family, with new ways to cope with everyday life and continue to grow. [As a side note, I have developed a kit called DECK for use by EFT therapists].
