Imago relationship therapy is a highly effective form of relationship and couples therapy that has positively affected thousands of couples around the world. This transformational method of therapy was developed 25 years ago by Dr. Harville Hendrix and Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt, and provides resources for couples, therapists, or individuals seeking to find a way to be more effective in their life and relationships.
Imago Relationship and Couples Therapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy believes that individuals are wounded in relationship that results in trigger points and frozen needs, and that healing of both the individual and the relationship happen in learning how to create emotionally safe connection.
- Imago therapy empowers couples and individuals with tools, skills and principles that they can learn and use on their own, thereby reducing dependence on a therapist.
- Imagotherapy helps normalize and make sense of most of the distress that happens between spouses / partners, and the understanding can help open more creative approaches that honor both partner’s needs and concerns. Conflicts make sense. Most people don’t need a diagnosis of a ‘mental disorder’ simply because they have a distressful marriage or relationship. Imago therapy does not pathologize your distress or disconnection.
- Imago therapy dialogue and other tools promote connection and emotional intimacy without losing ones self in the process. You learn how to respect differences, the fact that your partner is not you, yet still grow and deepen connection.
- Imago therapy increases compassion, even when you don’t like what your spouse or partner does, and provides more internal motivation for successful change.
- Imagotherapy helps couples respect the needs and concerns of both partners, and opens up more possibilities for win-win approaches to conflict. Many times, it helps simply dissolve a conflict.
- Imago therapy works if you work to use the tools, skills and information you learn. I have seen couples take a marriage or relationship on the brink of break-up, and transform it into something stronger and more fulfilling than ever. I have seen couples take an essentially good relationship and find a way through the places they get stuck. I have seen couples with no complaints about their relationship use the tools to move into a level of connection, intimacy and personal healing and growth beyond anything they could imagine. I have also seen couples who had minor distresses thatcould have been repaired, but they chose not to make the effort to implement what they learned and eventually ended their relationship.
- The principles can be applied to any relationship, even though you may slightly modify some of the tools.
