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 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 Couples Transformation (EcCT), which is her innovative, integrative and transformational approach to the creation of strong, productive, and creative relationships. Using this approach, Hedy educates and guides couples, 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 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 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 PRIVATE INTENSIVES
The Couple's Journey Intensive™ is a private, event with Hedy designed for one couple. Customized to your unique needs, this is the ultimate way to work with Hedy. During the pandemic, this is offered virtually via Zoom.
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.
CORPORATE SEMINARS
Hedy's goal is getting companies to reach their highest potential by helping their people learn relational intelligence and maturity, and by deepening connection with one another.
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 tools to help you create a significantly deeper level of connection and understanding with your partner.
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.
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.
TRAININGS FOR PROFESSIONALS
Clinical trainings for therapists in Encounter-Centered Couples Transformation. Trainings in relational skills also offered for managers, HR executives and CEOs.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
Empowering audiences to embrace life and the meaning of connection to their fullest is Hedy's gift. Whether in a stadium setting, 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.
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.
WHY HEDY?
Have you ever wished?
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 bridge 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.
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.
HEDY’S NEWSLETTER
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