At Her Core
Hedy Schleifer is an internationally-renowned master relationship builder and motivational speaker. Her beloved life’s work is guiding people in relationships to experience the most alive and joyful connection with each other.
“Relationships are not problems to be solved, but adventures to be LIVED!”
Meet Hedy
Hedy has dedicated her personal and professional lives to the exploration of relationship building and the development of relational intelligence and maturity. She has 40 years of professional experience with a BA from UCLA in Psychology and an MA in Clinical and Child Psychology from Tel Aviv University, as well as over 55 years of personal experience in her marriage to Yumi and her living relational laboratory. Hedy believes that world peace begins with the human family, and can best be achieved by creating strong, committed, and growing partnerships of all kinds.
ENCOUNTER-CENTERED TRANSFORMATION™
Hedy’s current work with Encounter-centered Transformation™ (EcT) has its roots in Hedy’s earlier work: Encounter-centered Couples Therapy® which is an approach Hedy has practiced and taught for decades.
While Hedy no longer offers this work in a therapeutic setting, her innovative, integrative and affirming Encounter-centered Transformation™ approach to the creation of strong, productive, and creative relationships forms the core of her work. Using this approach, Hedy educates and guides couples through private intensives, and trains mental health professionals, coaches, leaders. and executives in EcT so that they can share her approach to relationships with the people they serve.
BUILDING A CAREER
Hedy’s early career started in private practice where she counseled people affected with AIDS during the height of the crisis. She has also focused much of her attention assisting and empowering women to reach their full potential. Through the creation of a chapter of the Foundation for Mid-East Communication, Hedy was given a unique opportunity to work on Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations. Through that experience, Hedy dove deep into teachings about conflict dissolution and relational maturity, which she has brought to all of her work.
GLOBAL CITIZEN
Hedy speaks seven languages and has taught and provided her approach to relationships in more than 39 countries worldwide. Revered by students and clients all over the world, Hedy proudly works with people of all races, ethnicities, religions, and sexual and gender orientations.
IN THE MEDIA
Hedy is the subject of the documentary, “Hedy and Yumi Crossing the Bridge,” which won Best Documentary at the 2009 LA Femme Film Festival in Hollywood, California and tells the story of her life’s work through the lens of her relationship with her husband and professional partner, Yumi, Hedy was hand-selected to be one of the featured therapists on the Emmy-nominated Israeli TV show, “Couples Therapy.” Her talk at TEDxTelAviv on The Power of Connection is not to be missed.
In 1996 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, embraced it as an adventure to be lived, and renamed cancer the “cellular challenge.” In 2016, a new diagnosis of breast cancer prompted Hedy to respond by writing the book, “The Diary of an Amazon: Joining the Clan of the One-breasted Woman.”
PERSONALLY
Hedy was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and was raised in Antwerp, Belgium. She married and lived in Israel, but today, she calls Washington D.C. home. Hedy and her beloved husband Yumi z”l have two sons, 13 grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.
Hedy’s Approach
Encounter-centered Transformation™ is a beautifully-integrative and interdisciplinary model for relationship building created by Hedy. It lies at the intersection of philosophy, clinical theory, organizational methodology, and relational neurobiology and based on four main pillars: the philosophy of Martin Buber, Imago Relationship Theory and Practice, Appreciative Inquiry and the new frontier of Relational Neurobiology and Memory Reconsolidation. It is an approach that promotes transformational change, a visceral, cellular and internal shift, one that is dependable and sustainable. As new empirical studies have shown, good and strong relationships help the brain change and develop in a way that promotes even better relationships.
Hedy guides partners toward this kind of transformation through what she calls the “Art of Connection,” teaching them how to turn their relationship into a living laboratory for the development of relational intelligence: how to fill their partnership with creativity, wisdom and generosity of spirit. Relational intelligence puts partners on the path to relational maturity and is at the core of having successful relationships both personally and professionally.
Services
COUPLES PRIVATE INTENSIVES
The Couple's Journey Intensive™ is private-and-connected work with Hedy as she guides you to your deepest connection through her Encounter-centered Transformation™ approach to relationships. This is the ultimate way to work with Hedy.
FOR FAMILIES
Often families need a guide to bring them back to a healthy “familial” environment. Hedy will work with your family to clear the relational space and build a bridge between generations or siblings through Encounter-centered Transformation™.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
Empowering audiences to embrace life and the meaning of connection to their fullest is Hedy's gift. She is available to be the keynote speaker, workshop presenter or trainer at your Zoom event.
COUPLES GROUP WORKSHOPS
The Couple's Journey™ is a two-day learning adventure. Small, intimate and safe, this workshop combines the best of group work with the focus of a private intensive session, and gives you the Encounter-centered Transformation™ tools to help you create a significantly deeper level of connection and understanding with your partner.
TRAININGS FOR PROFESSIONALS
Clinical trainings for therapists and coaches in Encounter-centered Transformation™.
FOR BUSINESS PARTNERS
Business partners are in a relationship that needs tending to just like any other relationship. These sessions with Hedy teach Encounter-centerd Transformation™ and bring clarity of purpose, discovery and clearing away of unproductive energy to create an environment that leads to greater success.
Testimonials
As an executive coach, this work sharpened my ability to impress upon company leaders how to build powerful, dynamic relationships. As a husband, it equipped me with insightful tools to take the relationship with my wife to a deeper level of intimacy. Thank you! Thank you! -S
We were very surprised that Hedy’s ability to sense and see us, and our ability to connect with her didn’t feel at all encumbered by being on Zoom. Her enthusiasm, her empathy and her open-minded, accepting soul created an incredible space for us to work together. What an incredible way to have the opportunity to work closely with her from across a continent -S & E
The work we did has made a huge difference. This should be a mandatory premarital class for couples. It was painful and tearful and heart wrenching and so rewarding; for the first time my husband I were not passively listening and responding but engaging with one another. – K&E
Working with Hedy, to really feel and experience each other’s love again was beyond our expectation and to now have the tools to work with inspires and encourages us both to find that deeper feelings of pure love. We now look forward to our New Life together with fresh eyes. – P&G
In our longing for deep connection, and the heart-crippling, soul-withering sorrow of disconnection, we came to you. Now, after 25 years, we have a shared language to not just talk about it, but to DO something about it back at home… to build connection, and to grow together. – B&T
In revealing to each other what we feel and experience, a miracle happened—it took us back to the connection we enjoyed in the first phase of our relationship, when we felt so real, alive and madly in love. Only this time it felt sooo much deeper and more grounded in reality. – W&H
Having done traditional couples therapy, I was concerned this would be too spiritual without tackling hard subjects. It’s the antithesis of that and cuts immediately to the bare bones of what is fundamental in human relationships, while skipping the symptomatic superficial bs we say to complain about our partners. In a unique way the journey with Hedy inspires you to treat the relationship as sacred and makes clear that things can’t be left to run on automatic but must be approached with thoughtfulness and intention. – M
The journey with Hedy helped us see what was special in ourselves and therefore in our relationship. We turned a needed corner to enter the relationship we yearned for. The sessions were stepping stones to see what beauty we had on the other side. Since our last session, we use those stones to see, hear and be with one another in a new way. It was an inner journey that anyone would grow from. Hedy was the vessel that allowed us to finally show ourselves who we are – D&D
We felt really privileged to have been able to experience this work. Each session touched our hearts in different ways. Hedy’s presence existed in the space between sessions and will have a lasting impact on our relationship for a long time after. We had a feeling of being held, guided and safe to delve into the uncomfortable spaces. – R&A
Even during an intense or scary topic, when it is visited inside the structure of an Encounter, my mind is at peace and present, and I feel myself and my Encounter-partner cozily wrapped in the softest cashmere cocoon. From there, everything is possible. In fact, likely. – S
IT’S TIME TO TURN PROBLEMS
INTO ADVENTURES
Please contact our office for any of your questions about working with Hedy. You can reach us by sending a detailed message via email to info@hedyschleifer.com.
Trying to reach the hosts of Hedy’s Encounter-centered Community? Please email them here: hello@encountercentered.com
Our team is generally in the office Monday – Thursday from 10a – 3p ET, and will always respond via email within two business days.
HEDY’S NEWSLETTER
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