Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT) was created by Dr. Harville Hendrix, author of the best-selling “Getting the Love You Want: A Guide For Couples (1988).” IRT is a concise and effective coaching technique that can help couples in any stage of a relationship deepen their connection with one another.

The term Imago is Latin for “image,”and refers to the “unconscious image of familiar love.” Simply put, there is often a connection between the frustrations experienced in adult relationships and early childhood experiences.  For example: If you frequently felt criticized as a child, you will likely be sensitive to any criticism from, and feel criticized often by your partner.  Likewise, if you felt abandoned, smothered, neglected, etc., these feelings will come up in your marriage/committed relationships.

Most people face only a few of these “core issues,” but they typically arise again and again within partnerships. This can overshadow all that is good in the relationship, leaving people to wonder if they have chosen the right mate.  So here is the good news: When you can understand each other’s feelings and “childhood wounds” more empathically, you can begin to heal yourself and your relationship, and move toward a more conscious relationship. Imago couples therapy takes a radically different approach. We don’t work to “fix” you, we invite you to join with us in working on the relationship as a whole. In Imago, nobody is right or wrong. The challenge is to learn how to talk together about things which really matter, in a way that feels safe, supportive, and positive.

That puts you in the driving seat! You and your partner learn to work on the relationship yourselves, and you become the experts on your own relationship by learning to find out what is really going on for your partner, and understanding how things in the present have a deep emotional connection to their past.

Information gathered from www.imagorelationships.org.