The Relational Intelligence® model is a therapeutic approach based on recent data from neuroscience, particularly in the areas of trauma, attachment and emotional regulation.
It allows us to explore and transform in depth the blockages linked to past experiences, often unconscious or dissociated, which can continue to affect our behaviors, reactions and relationships.
An approach born from the alliance between neuroscience and therapeutic relationships
Relational Intelligence® was developed by François Le Doze, a neurologist who worked for 30 years at Caen University Hospital before becoming a psychotherapist and trainer.
He drew inspiration from several recognized approaches, including the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, polyvagal theory, and his own clinical experience with patients suffering from medical and neurological disorders.
Faced with the limitations encountered in certain approaches (particularly in the treatment of attachment disorders and early trauma), he built a model centered on a detailed understanding of the nervous system, and on the importance of asecure therapeutic relationship as a lever for transformation.
Understanding dissociation: a survival mechanism that becomes a hindrance
When an event is too intense to experience, or occurs at a stage of development when the brain is not yet ready to integrate it, dissociation can occur.
This means that the brain « cuts » the link between:
- The « lower« , instinctive brain, which senses danger or reacts to the environment,
- The « upper« , reflective brain, capable of understanding and putting things into words.
This dissociation can help us survive a difficult experience, but it also creates gray areas within us: emotions, reactions, or pain that we do not understand, or that seem “exaggerated” or “out of context”.
Reconnecting to regain coherence and peace of mind
The Relational Intelligence® model offers a safe and supportive process, with a trained practitioner, to reconcile these different parts of ourselves.
Over the course of the sessions, within a supportive and safe environment, it becomes possible to:
- identify automatic reactions that originate from past experiences,
- naming and feeling what has been set aside or cut off,
- allow the nervous system to return to a state of inner safety.
This work is not only done through talking or analysis, but through a lived experience of reconnection in the body, which is essential for deeply unblocking what is holding us back.
Marion Jullien 