At her core
Hedy Schleifer is an internationally renowned master relationship builder, guide, and motivational speaker. Her beloved life’s work life 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, and over 50 years of personal experience in her marriage and “living laboratory” with her husband, Yumi. 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 work is based on Encounter-Centered Transformation, which is her innovative, integrative and transformational approach to the creation of strong, productive and creative relationships. Using this approach, Hedy has educated couples, families, mental health professionals, leaders and executives in the power of connection and has also helped them to repair, heal and transform their relationships.
BUILDING A CAREER
Hedy’s early career started in private practice counseling 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 over 39 countries worldwide. Revered by students and clients all over the world, Hedy proudly works with people of all races, religions and sexual. and gender orientation.
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 of 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 write the book, “The Diary of an Amazon: Joining the Clan of the One-breasted Women.”
PERSONALLY
Hedy was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and was raised in Antwerp, Belgium. She married and lived in Israel, but today she and Yumi call Washington D.C home. They have two sons and 13 grandchildren.
Hedy’s Approach
“Newly available energy can flow between partners, in the service of forging a relationship of choice, rather than surrendering to relationship of compulsion.”
Encounter-Centered Transformation is an integrative and interdisciplinary model for relationship building. 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 GROUP WORKSHOPS
A two-day learning adventure created for couples wanting to work on their relationship dynamics. Small, intimate and safe, this workshop combines the best of group work with the focus of a private intensive session, and will give you the tools to help you create a significantly deeper level of connection and understanding with your partner.
COUPLES PRIVATE INTENSIVES
Custom-designed two-day private sessions for one couple. Guided through a thoughtful and deep examination, couples are ultimately brought back to each other after a possible rupture or disconnection.
TRAININGS FOR PROFESSIONALS
Clinical trainings for therapists in Encounter-Centered couples therapy. Trainings in relational skills also offered for managers, HR executives and CEOs.
FOR FAMILIES
Clearing the relational space of families by building a bridge between generations or siblings. Often families need a guide to bring them back to a healthy “familial” environment.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
Empowering audiences to embrace life and the meaning of connection to their fullest. A stadium setting or a company retreat or a business conference? Hedy is available to be the keynote speaker or motivator at a plethora of events and to a wide range of audiences.
CORPORATE SEMINARS
Hedy will lead a corporate retreat day and give an intensive, thought provoking interactive talk on group dynamics. Her goal is getting companies to reach their highest potential by teaching inter-rational intelligence.
FOR BUSINESS PARTNERS
Business partners are in a relationship that needs tending to just like any other relationship. These sessions bring clarity of purpose, discovery and clearing away of unproductive energy to create an environment that leads to greater success.
PRESENTATION SKILLS TRAININGS
Training people to present with boldness, poise and confidence. Clients are taught the ultimate public speaking skills on how to capture and hold the attention of an audience.
RELATIONSHIP WELLNESS RETREATS
Hedy leads a small group of couples at luxurious and romantic resorts worldwide. She works with the couples as a group and individually and uses the surroundings of the destination to help facilitate her mindful approach to relationship wellness.
Hedy’s Ted Talk
WHY HEDY?
Have you ever wished that you could shift from the paradigm of relationships as a problem to be
solved to the paradigm of their being as an adventure to be lived?
Have you ever wished to make your business work to its highest potential and transform conflict into success?
Have you ever wished to have an experience over a few days that could turn your relationship in a positive direction forever?
Have you ever wished for a motivational speaker to address the core principles of relationship building in a warm yet empowering manner?
For these reasons and more, Hedy may be exactly who you’ve been looking for.
WHEN IT’S TIME TO TURN
PROBLEMS INTO ADVENTURES
Please contact our office for any of your questions or needs. We will get back to you as soon as possible and absolutely within two business days. Please email us here: info@hedyschleifer.com or use the form below. To help us help you most quickly, please give us as much information as possible.
RELATIONSHIP MASTERY
An internationally renowned master relationship builder, guide, and motivational speaker, Hedy supports people in relationships to experience the most alive and joyful connection with each other.
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