Encounter-centred couples therapy

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Hedy Schleifer, Yumi Schleifer · 2010

What it is

EcCT is a couples approach developed by Hedy Schleifer, an Israeli-licensed clinical psychologist and former Imago clinical instructor, with her husband Yumi; she founded the Tikkun Learning Center in 2010 to train therapists in it. She names four pillars: Martin Buber's philosophy of the…

Format

• EcCT is a structured sequence of guided experiences. It is not a weekly open-ended therapy.
• Formats

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Move to challenge neighbourhoods once the couple can enter a regulated nonverbal bridge and hold host and visitor roles without the survival dance taking over.
• Training and certification. Training ran through the Tikkun Learning Center and an EcCT training site. Formats are live seminars, video series and intensives that combine lecture, demonstration and practice. No published certification standard, fidelity measure or required hours are known. Describe your work as "informed by" EcCT unless you have trained with the Schleifers.
• EcCT is a couples approach developed by Hedy Schleifer, an Israeli-licensed clinical psychologist and former Imago clinical instructor, with her husband Yumi; she founded the Tikkun Learning Center in 2010 to train therapists in it. She names four pillars: Martin Buber's philosophy of the encounter, Imago theory and practice, Appreciative Inquiry, and relational neurobiology with memory reconsolidation. In…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• it being used as a test of the other. Keep it invitational.
• the couple settling, slowing down and softening their voices.
• each partner naming their own contribution rather than the other's.
• visits skipped, or used to raise complaints. Review these in session.
• routine, hollow appreciations. Ask for specifics and the feeling behind them.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.