HMT® is a two-day workshop that helps married couples deepen their emotional connection and strengthen their shalom bayis in a safe and culturally sensitive environment. The workshop is designed for married couples at any stage in their relationship, and offers tools to build closeness, understanding, and emotional safety in their marriage.

Based on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), the workshop is not group therapy.  It combines teaching in a group setting and guided experiential conversations that couples complete privately with their spouse. This workshop is tailored to the orthodox Jewish community and is in keeping with the sensitivities and values of frum couples. 

Debi Scimeca-Diaz, LMFT and JJ Rieder, LCSW are both experienced in working with the orthodox Jewish community, and are passionate about bringing this workshop to frum couples everywhere.

Who Should Attend

• Married couples at any stage of marriage
• Couples seeking to strengthen a good relationship
• Couples experiencing ongoing misunderstandings, distance, or tension
• Couples looking for an opportunity to pause the daily pressures of life and reconnect emotionally. 

Location:
ODA
347 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY
DATE and TIMES:
Sunday April 26 — 9 to 5:30
Monday April 27 —  9 to 4/430

Feedback from prior frum couples:

This workshop is a must for every frum couple no matter how your marriage looks. It’s impossible to explain what it feels like and looks like to sit in a room with some vulnerable, brave and smart heimisha couples and for the first time feeling “I am not alone” “I am not the only one”.  

Marriage is a struggle which when you work on it and get the right understanding you get to really feel what real life and connection feels and looks like. 

If I could change the world I would run around the streets with a microphone shouting and begging every single couple to gift themselves and join the most beautiful and meaningful workshop with Debi Scimeca-Diaz and JJ Rieder

If you are nervous or concerned do like me … close your eyes, don’t think about it and jump into it! It’s worth every penny! 

2 weeks after the workshop:

Although two weeks have passed since the workshop, the powerfulness of the experience is still fresh in our minds. The simple beauty of the concepts you shared—presented in such a concrete, clear manner—contrasted with the depth of potential connection they bring to a relationship, left an incredible impression on us. 

Prior to the workshop, we were anxious and fearful about what to expect. However, within the first few minutes, we instinctively knew we were in good hands. Your welcoming, reassuring smiles and palpable energy brought a lightness to the room that eased our tension and made us eager to listen. Throughout the two days, your vulnerability, passion, and genuine empathy engaged our hearts and our focus.

Additionally, the group setting—the very element we were most afraid of—provided exactly what we were seeking: camaraderie and shared experience. The environment felt non-judgmental and courageous, and we’d dare to say, sacred.

We discovered things about ourselves and each other that at first, were quite unsettling. Yet, it allowed us to build something real and meaningful. At least, now we know where to look when we get stuck again: in those “sub-cellars” of our hearts. Ultimately, the discoveries, however uncomfortable initially, create a connection so powerful, and for that we are grateful. 

In fact, it was perhaps for the first time that we felt on a soul level, the depth and potential of our marriage, the foreverness of it.

We thank you wholeheartedly, for your time, presence, and wisdom. The innovation you each bring to the community is truly appreciated. We look forward to continuing our journey of healing and connection.
Forever grateful and inspired.

 

No prior therapy experience is required.

Questions about the April 26-27, 2026  Workshop: Contact JJ Rieder

jjrieder@gmail.com

 (732) 995-9812‬

Debi Scimeca-Diaz, LMFT spent the last 25 years helping couples build deeper connections. Relationships are the most powerful connections we encounter and can bring us great joy and happiness, as well as great pain and sorrow. We often get hurt in relationships, so it is in relationships where we heal. 

Debi spent the last 15 years training other therapists in EFT and leading Hold Me Tight® workshops. Her passion for helping couples is palpable.  She has been working in the Orthodox community for several years and is respectful and sensitive to the religious and cultural differences.

JJ Rieder, LCSW is an EFT couples therapist in private practice. After obtaining his social work degree in 2006, JJ completed his post-graduate training at The Ackerman Institute For the Family, where he specialized in couples and family therapy. Most recently, JJ has focused on bringing EFT to the forefront of couples therapy in the orthodox Jewish community, including assisting at trainings of other therapists and Co-leading Hold-Me-Tight workshops for frum couples. 

Cancellation Policy: Your registration fee is non-refundable. If an emergency arises please reach to us as soon as possible.