Doris Haufler-Hershkowitz
University of Graz, Austria: study of French and Psychology
Social Academy of Vienna (SozAk Wien): Social-worker degree
1992: recognition as Psychotherapist by the Austrian Health Ministry
Trainings:
Systemic Family Therapy and Psychodrama (certified ÖAGG)
Clinical training in Imago Relationship Therapy (Switzerland)
EMDR trauma-work (Germany, Belgium, Austria)
Practice:
Freelance psychotherapist for over 25 years
Employed in women’s career development & coaching, in AQUA Institute (Vienna)
Coaching of international and E.U. clients in Brussels, individually and in couples, for over 10 years, in German, French and English
Trainer for crisis-intervention and new neuroscience-based techniques (WILAK Institute, Vienna) for over 10 years
Special Guest & Co-therapist
Dr. Charles Hershkowitz, MD
Studies:
Physics at CUNY, MIT and U. of Brussels, with degree in 1970
Medicine at U. of Brussels, with MD degree in 1980
Psychiatry at U. of Brussels (1982-87), degree in 1987
Practice:
General Medecine in Belgium for 2 years
Psychiatry and Psychotherapy since 1987
– in a Brussels social-work organization
– in 2 Brussels prisons (multidisciplinary research on murderers)
– in a women’s center in Brussels dealing with domestic violence
– in private practice with individuals and couples
– with special attention to HSP (highly sensitive person) aspects
Our development toward the present therapeutic offer in Vienna:
After we met in 2000, Doris soon started working with me and contributing to the way I was doing “Emotional Work” in Brussels with patients – in individual sessions, with couples and with small groups –, which I had developed there since 1987. In 2002, Doris heard about the Imago method, which is a hands-on, very direct way of working on emotions between partners, and has a powerful theoretical model underpinning its innovative ways of working on relationships.
Soon after attending a 3-day Imago couples workshop, conducted by Hedy and Yumi Schleifer in 2002 in Austria, we participated together in the Imago training program held in Switzerland in French. In 2007, I was certified as Imago Relationship Therapist by the U.S.-based institute Imago Relationships International (website: www.ImagoRelationships.org ).
As Doris and I worked on our own couple using these new tools, we developed and continually refined a large set of specific, structured procedures for helping the partners in couples who consulted us to understand each other’s distinctive inner worlds, to make big steps toward mutual empathy and on this basis to reshape their ways of communicating and making behavioral changes.
As I applied this in my Brussels sessions, and as I blended in some features of other training I got — in Voice Dialogue, Visualization, and EMDR therapy –, my own work as a therapist with individuals and our work together with couples took on their present forms.
Dr. Hershkowitz, 2019