The trainings with Cloé Madanes navigate a variety of scenarios ranging from individual problems to those of the family, the peer group, the organization and the larger social system. The basic tenet of the approach is that individuals, relationships, organizations and community can be directed toward positive change through the strategic planning of skillful interventions deployed in steps or stages.

Strategic Intervention encompasses: strategic family therapy, social action therapy, direct and indirect negotiation, the third side, Ericksonian therapy, structural family therapy, human needs psychology, life-cycle theory of business organization, conflict resolution techniques, organizational psychology and community organization.

• Emotions can be controlled and transformed from negative to positive leading to a sense of well-being and conducive to contribution.
  
• The human potential is restricted by problem patterns and belief structures, not by innate tendencies.
  
• There are six universal human needs that can be satisfied in positive or negative ways. They are: Security, Variety, Love and Connection, Significance, Growth and Contribution. The first four are essential to human survival. The last two are essential to human fulfillment.
  
• Focus, meaning and physiology are essential to understanding individual motivation.
  
• There are four stages to spiritual development: The need to control; The need to be loved; The need to give love; and The need to repent and to forgive.
  

• Individuals, families, and organizations have a life cycle with obstacles that are characteristic of each stage.
  
• People change when the social context changes and the social context changes when individuals change.
  
• Hierarchical incongruities (where two incompatible power structures are simultaneously defined) are common obstacles to the effective functioning of the family, the organization and the community.
  
• Metaphors, hierarchical structures and sequences of interaction repeat and replicate through different sub-systems of an organization.
  

• In every conflict situation it is possible to define a meta-frame of agreement.
  
• Responsibility, repentance and reparation are essential to sustaining peace within the family, the organization and the community.
  
• In every conflict situation there is a third side: those who value peace over and above a particular position. This third side must be identified, developed and supported.
  
• Interventions may take the form of directives about something that people are to do. Directives may be direct, indirect, metaphorical or paradoxical.
  
• Leverage must be obtained before giving a directive.
  
• A distinction is made between (1) identifying a problem and (2) creating a problem by characterizing an individual or a group in a certain way.
  
• The way a problem is defined and how it is expressed metaphorically through problem behaviors is essential to its solution.
  
• Negotiations in conflict situations may be direct or indirect.