Imago is a new way to connect with your partner.
On this page you can learn more about how Imago can help you revive the passion and hope in your relationship. Please follow this link for a bullet point summary of Imago.
Harville Hendrix, PhD and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD developed Imago Relationship Therapy based on their experience of mending relationships, including their own marriage. An indication of the success of Imago is that Oprah Winfrey included "Imago Theory" in her list of "Unforgettable! Oprah’s Top 20 Shows". Response to Harville Hendrix’s recent appearance on “The Oprah Show” was so strong that the Imago book “Getting The Love You Want” was back yet again on the New York Times Bestseller list this May.
Imago’s wide-range of programs for couples includes weekend workshops held at many locations around the world. There’s also private counseling from over 1000 Certified Imago Therapists, and our compelling new DVD based program for home-study, “Through Conflict to Connection”
Please take a look at these articles and video clips which describe more about how Imago can help you and your partner connect more deeply. There are also some tools to use – and some personal stories from couples who have done Imago work.
Articles on relationships
Video clips
Quiz / tools
Stories from Imago Couples
Are you Getting the Love You Want?
Communication problems in relationships often erode the passion and hope that we first feel when we fall in love. Imago communications skills for families and couples will help you quickly revive that passion, and reconnect with your partner. Building trust in relationships is an important part of the Imago journey, so that you can feel safe enough to truly understand your partner, and once again appreciate them fully.
Much of Imago is based on connecting with your partner through a form of dialogue. After you speak, your partner mirrors what you said. It can be very uplifting just to experience your partner really taking in your words. The experience becomes richer as your partner lets you know that what you say makes sense, and shares with you their recognition of what you may be feeling.
You can learn these skills and many more at Imago couples counseling retreats. These are based on the best-selling book “Getting the Love You Want” by Harville Hendrix, PhD, who developed Imago Relationship Therapy together with his wife Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD. Imago workshops are provided over a weekend at many places around the world. Couples are taught why they were originally attracted to their partner, why that love can turn to conflict, and how to use the Imago dialogue to work on these issues together.
Relationship advice and marriage counseling is available from certified Imago therapists, counselors, and relationship coaches around the world. They help you make effective use of the relationship skills which are taught in the Imago Workshop, with a strong emphasis placed on helping you and your partner connect through dialogue. Imago couples communication therapy includes some exceptionally effective approaches to mending relationships and rebuilding your marriage.
Imago also provides workshops for individuals based on Hendrix and Hunt’s book “Keeping the Love You Find”. These retreats provide relationship advice and insight into communication problems in relationships, in a format which is just as effective and enjoyable for those in-between relationships as for those in love.
We think of Imago as a “New Way to Love”
When we fall in love, it’s supposed to be forever. We meet the person of our dreams and a magical transformation takes place within us. We feel alive, whole, connected to the world and the people in it. Then before we know it, that magical connection disappears! Where did it go?
Imago Relationship Theory teaches that romantic love, which you experience at the beginning of your relationship, is the way our unconscious seeks to restore the feeling of joyful aliveness we felt as a young child. We’re attracted to people who emotionally resemble our primary caretakers, because we unknowingly believe they can provide these emotional needs. We call this “finding our Imago match”. Imago is the Latin word for image, the subconscious image of our perfect partner.
However when we choose a partner who is our “Imago match” they resemble both the positive AND the negative qualities of our primary caretakers. It’s these negative qualities that create confusion and disillusionment when we realize that they are not able to meet our deepest emotional needs.
How Imago helps you rediscover the relationship of your dreams
Imago Relationship Therapy will help you become aware of the hidden agenda of romantic love, and to see that the conflict in your relationship is a wonderful opportunity for growth. The Imago dialogue provides a safe and supportive set of tools to explore these deep issues with your partner. The emotional bond initially created by romantic love is able to evolve into the powerful, lifelong bond that is real love.
Imago provides you with some simple tools which help you rediscover the relationship of your dreams!
Click here for help repairing relationships from an Imago relationship therapist or marriage counselor.
Click here to improve communications problems in relationships through attending Imago workshops or couples counseling retreats.
|
