Cloe Madanes

Professional Life
Cloe Madanes studied psychology in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and spent much of her career practicing psychiatry. Madanes worked at the University of Maryland Hospital as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry beginning in 1974. She was also an Assistant Professor at Howard University Hospital. After several years, she was offered the position of Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland. She held this position from 1980 to 1984. Madanes also served as director for the Family Therapy Institute of Washington, D.C., and the Family Therapy Center of Maryland.

Madanes’ expertise in the area of family therapy has provided her with the opportunity to travel the world to share her views. She lectures worldwide, and has been involved in programs across the country, that are aimed at the preservation of children’s rights and the prevention of family violence.

Contribution to Psychology
In 2000, Madanes partnered with motivational speaker and author Anthony Robbins, to form the Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention. The center strives to help people resolve conflicts in their personal and professional lives. Using psychology and social sciences, Madanes and Robbins design strategic interventions that address the needs of all members in the family, community or business. Positive modifications can be achieved when the right techniques are implemented, and Madanes and her colleague employ several different methods of therapy in their interventions, including Ericksonian therapy, negotiation, family therapy, conflict resolution, life-cycle theory organization, and mediation. 

The center provides training material for mental health professionals. Madanes uses her decades of clinical experience to develop the methods taught from the center. And the strategies she details in her books, Relationship Breakthrough and The Violence of Men and Strategic Family Therapy, are emphasized throughout her very successful teaching methods.