Mindy McHugh, RN, MS, MFT
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Certified Imago Relationship Therapist
I began working in the health care industry in 1977, as a registered nurse. For 22 years I practiced nursing in the acute care setting, and have to date maintained my nursing license. Caring for others seems like a natural bridge between nursing and the career change into marriage and family therapy. My years of nursing have provided me with a wide range of experience including concerns over grief and loss. Generally, the patient populations I worked with were diverse in age, race, culture, socioeconomic status, and most of all individual health care challenges, be it geriatric nursing, psychiatric nursing, or pre and post-operative patient teaching and counseling.
Through the course of my nursing experience I continually found myself nurturing my own thoughts on the importance of emotional health affecting one’s own physical health--and later realized the importance for the integration of the mind, body, and spirit. It was then that I decided to return to college to complete my undergraduate work in Psychology, with a minor in Women’s Studies. The additional two years of concentration in Women’s Studies was a rich educational experience helping me to appreciate the complexity of relationships, in the context of culture, that included a historical view of women, minorities, children, the challenges of gay and lesbian relationships as well as other matters of diversity. During that same time, I co-edited, the monograph
“HIV/STD Prevention in Young Population: Culturally Sensitive Approaches” for the State of California, UC University-wide Task Force on AIDS.
While in undergraduate school, I was also invited to give a presentation to the local high school’s Life Skills class on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases to include AIDS. Drawing on my nursing knowledge, I developed a program and became a regular presenter for the next four years. Creating a warm, caring and safe environment, allowed the students to respond with the courage to ask important yet sensitive questions--the students were attentive, if not riveted by the presentation, exhibiting both concern and curiosity. My nursing experience, guest speaking, and the subsequent formal education was a natural transition into the Masters Program for Counseling.
My internship was challenging and consisted of working with trauma victims, perpetrators of trauma, and court mandated child abuse cases. I
co-facilitated both men’s and women’s groups. While I cared deeply about all my clients, I discovered my real love of the work is with helping families and couples restore and rebuild their relationships, motivated by their own desires for reconnection.
Currently, I am collaborating with my office partner, Ralph Butcher, also an MFT, on a series of children’s books and training manuals for parents, based on Harville Hendrix’s best seller, “Giving the Love that Heals: A Guide For Parents.”
Dr Hendrix’s contributions to the understanding of psychotherapy has made considerable advances in the specialization of couples work and more recently a new emphasis on parenting. His Imago theory has transformed the process of therapy promoting the healing of relationships.
For certain, relationships are complex. However, Imago therapy distilled into it’s simplest form, recognizes that we are wounded in relationship, and must therefore heal in relationship. As an Imago Therapist, my role is to facilitate that process so the couple may help each other heal. As I work with couples, my goals are to:
- create safety and restore trust in personal relationships
- improve communication
- establish healthy boundaries
- support the process for assertiveness
- and move individuals from unconscious reactivity to conscious intentionality
By making the unconscious, conscious, we develop an understanding of why we choose relationships that create frustration in our lives. Those individuals who are preparing to enter into relationship will learn how to choose a partner who
fits them more closely. For those of you who are currently in a relationship, you will learn how to reduce frustrations, acquire empathy for one another, and develop the communication skills necessary for creating safety that will naturally increase passion in your relationship.
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Ralph Butcher, MS, MFT
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Certified Imago Relationship Therapist
I began working for the airline industry at age 18. This career enabled me to travel the world and become familiar with many different cultures and customs. A decade later, I returned to college to complete my degrees in the field of psychology, attaining a B.A. in Clinical Psychology, and a M.S. in Counseling. During my formal training and internship I worked with a diverse group of individuals, including children and seniors.
I also consulted for the Hayward Unified School District where I developed and implemented a Tobacco Use Prevention Program for grade school children and made over 80 presentations to elementary schools. For 2 years I counseled teenagers who were using or abusing drugs and alcohol. As an intern I took additional training and supervision on assessment and treatment of personality disorders with the West Coast Director of the Masterson Institute.
I co-edited the monograph “HIV/STD Prevention in Young Populations: Culturally Sensitive Approaches” for the State of California, UC University-wide Task Force on AIDS. Currently I am collaborating with my office partner, Mindy McHugh, on a series of children’s books and training manuals for parents, based on Harville Hendrix’s best seller “Giving the Love That Heals: A Guide For Parents.”
After discovering the work of Dr. Harville Hendrix, I soon realized that he had synthesized what I had learned about relationships in graduate school, and transformed this information into a theory and therapy to heal relationships. I began my training at the Imago Relationship Institute, and became a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, and a Certified Imago Workshop Presenter.
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