Our entire staff here at the Imago Center of Washington is dedicated to Imago Relationship work!
Why? Because if so effective, safe and immediately beneficial to the relationship!
Whether you are a therapist who starts to sweat when a couple calls or a couple who needs a tuneup…read on!
Right from the very first session, there is a focus on learning to slow down, speaking to your partner in non-blaming ways that are heard, validated and empathized with. Sometimes talking can be the most dangerous thing a couple can do in their relationship. And it’s not the talking per say…it’s HOW a couple is talking. The heartfelt concern of so many messages gets lost since these are delivered in a way that triggers defensiveness and counter-argument.
Couples want to be understanding and empathic with their partner and in most cases, they don’t understand why their well-intentioned efforts seem to bring even more criticism or withdrawal. In the very first Imago session this pattern shifts and moves in a direction of intentional listening, understanding (which is not the same thing as agreement!) and empathic connection. AND, until this shift begins to happen no couple is able to address their differences. Think about it…when you and your partner are at odds all that energy goes toward trying to convince them of your position or the energy goes toward avoiding the issue so it does get any worse! And your ‘good intentions’ become an understandable but ineffective standoff. And what is so painful about this position (and we have all been there!) is that both partners have good intentions that seem to end up damaging the goal…the goal of empathic connection and understanding.
When we have connection and understanding, the path to change and the possibility of working as a team becomes a viable alternative and everything is smoother!
As it is with so many things in life, if you want to become really good at it…get lessons!
Don’t assume your good intentions, reasonable negotiating skills and warm feelings will be enough when the waters get rough!
Calling all Therapists and Coaches! Yes…you need Imago training!
A uniquely important aspect of Imago Relationship work is the focus on the relationship and the skills to quickly reconnect a couple and restore a sense of empathy and hope. Imago work incorporates and goes beyond systemic work and attachment theory into the depth of the healing space between a couple…between all of us. Imago Relationship work involves theory and more importantly, an effective skill set that the facilitator or therapist uses and teaches a couple from the first moment they walk into the office.
Leaning to facilitate the Imago Dialogue between two people who feel hurt, scared and defended to the degree that they begin to think they married the wrong person and the other person is surely to blame for this disaster, is the sacred responsibility of the Imago therapist.
The Imago therapist goes to work immediately as an advocate for the relationship…never taking sides but facilitating the potential between the partners.
Learn More:
Imago Clinical Training: The next basic clinical training in DC begins in September 2018. Register here.
Imago Relationship Therapy for couples: Check out our variety of workshops from for a four-hour introduction to how to talk to others to the two-day Getting the Love You Want weekend event.
- Safe Conversations: A four-hour introduction to thriving relationships. Next event: Oct 20, 2018
- A New Way to Love: Two-hours for six weeks learning new skills for talking to each other. Next event: Oct 4, 2018
- Start Right, Stay Connected: A one-day investment in your long-term future, for premarital couples. Next event: Oct 13, 2018
- Getting the Love You Want: A two-day workshop. Tens of thousands of couples worldwide have attended this Imago weekend workshop for couples based on the best-seller Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix, Ph.D. Next event: September 29-30, 2018