Meet chat host Marcia Ferstenfeld!

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Please welcome with me Marcia Ferstenfeld, M.A., CIRT as our chat host this week. Marcia is a clinical therapist certified in Imago Relationship Therapy with Advanced Clinician Status. She is a Certified Imago Consultant,a member of the Imago Relationships International Faculty and is currently a Clinical Trainer candidate. Marcia is a co-creator of the Supporting Our Children weekend workshop based on Imago Parenting, and is currently working on the development of an Imago Parenting course based on Giving the Love That Heals by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. Marcia's private practice focuses on supporting couples, individuals and families in achieving personal growth and developing loving relationships in regular and extended, intensive sessions. Assisted by her husband, Larry, she presents Getting The Love You Want, Keeping the Love You Find, and Supporting Our Children Workshops. She brings a wealth of insight and experience gleaned from her devotion to their own evolving relationships to this work.

Welcome Marcia!

[Marcia Ferstenfeld]

Welcome

Dear friends:

I would like to welcome you to my week as guest host. I am excited to be interacting with API about the challenges and opportunities in relationships, be they committed love relationships, parenting or any other relationship. I welcome all your posts!

My introduction to attachment parenting came late, in that my daughters were pretty much grown before I discovered it. It was then that I returned to graduate school and found myself drawn to working with couples and became an Imago Relationship therapist. The complex dynamics of relationships is central to the work I do in my office, presenting workshops, training, and in my personal life. Attachment theory is an important component in the understanding that supports all that I do. As I assisted couples in understanding their own backgrounds, I heard them say things to one another like, "Oh my gosh! What are we doing to our kids?" and in 2000 I determined that I wanted to create a workshop to help parents shift some of the traditional parenting practices that remain prevalent. I've been passionately involved in teaching "parenting" ever since. In my personal life I see the benefits in the ways our daughters and their husbands parent our nine grandchildren, and it is with them that I can apply what I came to value and appreciate in the attachment approach and the Imago approach.
I am hopeful that I can contribute to the discussion and perhaps offer support, insight and even guidance if that is called for, in this coming week. In Imago we think in terms of healing the planet one couple or one family at a time!

Warmly,
Marcia Ferstenfeld

[Marcia Ferstenfeld]

Welcome

Dear friends:

I would like to welcome you to my week as guest host. I am excited to be interacting with API about the challenges and opportunities in relationships, be they committed love relationships, parenting or any other relationship. I welcome all your posts!

My introduction to attachment parenting came late, in that my daughters were pretty much grown before I discovered it. It was then that I returned to graduate school and found myself drawn to working with couples and became an Imago Relationship therapist. The complex dynamics of relationships is central to the work I do in my office, presenting workshops, training, and in my personal life. Attachment theory is an important component in the understanding that supports all that I do. As I assisted couples in understanding their own backgrounds, I heard them say things to one another like, "Oh my gosh! What are we doing to our kids?" and in 2000 I determined that I wanted to create a workshop to help parents shift some of the traditional parenting practices that remain prevalent. I've been passionately involved in teaching "parenting" ever since. In my personal life I see the benefits in the ways our daughters and their husbands parent our nine grandchildren, and it is with them that I can apply what I came to value and appreciate in the attachment approach and the Imago approach.
I am hopeful that I can contribute to the discussion and perhaps offer support, insight and even guidance if that is called for, in this coming week. In Imago we think in terms of healing the planet one couple or one family at a time!

Warmly,
Marcia Ferstenfeld

[Patricia Martin]

Attachment and Imago

Dear Marcia,
I want to validate for the readers your expertise and the broad knowledge base you have to offer! I would love to hear you say more about the relationship between Attachment Theory and Imago. Do you think it's possible to "repair" mistakes parents might have made before they were aware of Attachment Theory? Do you think couples can repair after they've hurt each other?
Your colleague,
Patricia Martin