Imago Relationship Therapy

Imago relationship therapy (IRT) aims to equip couples with the tools necessary to relate to each other in healthier ways and reveal the emotional pathway formed in childhood that led them to their current situation. This form of therapy combines spiritual and behavioral techniques with Western psychological methodologies in order to assist couples in unveiling their unconscious components.

While I do use other modalities for relationship therapy, such as Gottman and EFT, I find the techniques and exercises used in Imago therapy, which is best suited for helping clients take more control of their own healing process.

I work with couples using the couples dialogue, helping them to feel heard and understood, with the goal of engaging in healthy conflict and having a strengthened relationship.

This is a specific kind of relationship therapy that is designed to help conflict within relationships. We learn about the individual's own past wounds and how it maybe affecting their parter/relationship. Through this process we learn about personal triggers that are impacting the relationship.

When your partner REALLY listens to you, a disagreement need not become a fight. We'll use Harville & Helen Hendrix's communication techniques to listen to understand, rather than just waiting to fire back a rebuttal. So often, we aren't even fighting about the same thing. Having help to slow down and stay on the same track has made all the difference for couples' relationships. I have heard "I just wish we'd done this sooner," as I work with couples to re-build connection.

I engage in IMAGO relationship therapy often with couples to help them connect, attach, and communicate more effectively.

Imago therapy is focused upon helping us break patterns of repetitive relationship behavior that has not been serving us well. We all have relationship patterns and when caretakers were not healthy models, the patterns tend to be toxic. Imago therapy helps to fix adult patterns by focusing on and understanding the patterns formed and modeled by family of origin.

There is a link between frustrations in adult relationships and our experiences growing up. Childhood feelings of abandonment, suppression or neglect will often arise in an intimate relationship. When partners meet wounds with defensiveness and reactivity it can overshadow the positives in a relationship and lead to feelings of disconnection, pain and dis-empowerment. Imago Relationship Therapy aims to help couples learn to shift out of the power struggle and into loving connection.

My favorite way of working with clients is through Imago because it fosters deep communication.

I create an Imago profile for you so that you can understand what you each bring to the table and the mechanics of your interaction. Being able to understand each other in this way helps us to understand how to make the relationship work better.

I was introduced to Imago when I began counseling work in 2019. Since then, I have used it consistently in my practice. Understanding the process of mirroring, validation, and empathy not only gives me direction as a therapist in session, it also provides a useful guide for a couple to get to know themselves in relation. This method is great for cultivating listening skills by asking one to consider how to reflect back the content, as well as imagining the experience, from what another says.

My couples and relationship work pulls from the leading experts in the field, including Stan Tatkin's PACT model, Sue Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy, Ellyn Bader's developmental model of differentiation, and research by the Gottmans. However, I have a special liking for Harville Hendrix and Kelly LaHunt's Imago therapy.

Imago Couples Therapy is based on the idea that we each carry an image of what love should feel like, shaped by early experiences. This image influences our romantic relationships, often complicating them with past and present issues. Imago therapy aims to build empathy, understanding, appreciation, and connection between partners. Imago therapy can help you: ​ Reinvigorate your relationships. Transform conflict into connection. Embrace new possibilities for deeper relationships.

Imago relationship therapy (IRT) endeavors to equip couples with the communication skills necessary to relate to each other in healthy ways, while additionally revealing the emotional pathway formed in childhood that led them to their current relationship frustrations. This approach invites examining the conflict itself; encourages the couple co-create a satisfying solution, heal, and grow together.