NORA’S BIO
Dr. Nora Femenia is an expert in resolving conflicts in long term relationships. She offers conflict resolution coaching to individuals and couples, using her own method that merges developmental psychology and conflict studies. This new, fresh perspective helps clients:
- Renew trust and respectful communication;
- Get needs met for love and connection in marriage;
- Feel empowered to take steps towards personal satisfaction
Nora’s experience and passion is working with distressed families and their conflicts. She was a family therapist in Buenos Aires, Argentina for twenty years before moving to Syracuse, N. Y. to pursue her Ph.D. in Conflict Studies. Since graduating from Syracuse University, Nora has taught conflict theory to individuals and groups here in the USA and abroad, including family mediation training and seminars. She has authored 11 e-books on healing relationships (listed at the right of this page). On her blog, Ask Nora, readers share experiences and comments such as this:
“Well, when we found your books, it was like a miracle. My husband has started to see the impact of his passive aggression for the first time, and to see it dramatically. He has started to take action on his own to get better. I have been able to see that my trying to fix things has only been making things worse.”
Attachment theory is the core of Nora’s approach. How we are treated by our caretaker, whether with security and love, with anxiety or with simple rejection shapes our view of the world for ever. Nora’s conflict coaching focuses on mapping early attachments, discovering the mindset produced by them and listing the non-productive behaviors emanating from this mindset. She identifies the early frustrations working in the background of the marital interaction, provides strategies to understand and accept each other’s emotional needs and develops a “map” for helping a couple improve their communication by focusing on love, connection and respect.
“People trapped by their attachment-generated mindset see reality through it. If they were raised by an anxious mother, they learned: “You can never trust someone completely,” so it will be natural for them to struggle to trust their marriage partner. Nothing a partner can do will offer the needed security if this early conditioning is not revealed and addressed in the therapeutic strategy. If and when people become aware of how their original childhood attachment conditioning has become a mindset, they can recognize their limitations, learn new behaviors and change their lives.
Research shows that emotionally fulfilling relationships are the pillars of mental and physical health. By helping clients expand their emotional mindset to try new behaviors, Nora guides them to develop loving and nurturing connections. Successful relationships make people more resilient and productive.
