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.

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.

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

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 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.

Imago Therapy provides you with skills to mirror, validate, and empathize with your partner and building effective communication.

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.

For couples who are committed to staying together and need help working on their relationship, I help them see patterns that are not working. There is no blame game and I don’t take sides. I am on the side of the relationship. We identify the pattern (which may include family history patterns such as alcoholism, abuse, lack of emotions, etc.), break the pattern, and create new, preferred ways of interacting and communicating.

2021-Present: Imago Therapist in Training

Imago relationship therapy (IRT) aims to equip individuals and couples with the tools necessary to relate to each other in more optimal ways, and reveals 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.

I help couples heal the wounds that they have been projecting on to their partners to restore harmony in the relationship. I also facilitate the Imago Dialogue for healthy communication.

My journey first started as an Imago client and I found the method so useful I found a group to train with. Imago theory uses the “unconscious image [Imago] of familiar love” to help map out why misunderstandings occur for the couple and how to use the relationship to change the pattern to one of understanding each other's perspective. It is simple but hard work. Imago respects that the conflict in the relationship is change trying to occur rather than malicious intent.