Imago Relationship Therapy

This training is a rare opportunity for practicing marital therapists, psychotherapists, and other mental health professionals to study with the cofounder of Imago Relationship Therapy, Harville Hendrix, and pastoral psychotherapist, Gene Shelly.

Hendrix introduces us to this uniquely comprehensive and systematic theory and therapy of primary love relationships that is practiced in 30 countries by more than 2,000 Imago therapists. Imago therapy integrates, synthesizes, and extends the insights of the major Western psychological systems, behavioral science, and spiritual disciplines.

The “Imago” is an unconscious composite image of the significant character traits and behaviors of childhood primary caretakers that guides our selection of an intimate partner. By pairing us with an “Imago match”—an individual who in significant ways is like our caretakers—our unconscious drives us to recreate our childhood psychological dynamics in our adult love relationships in an attempt to heal the central wounds we carry.

Imago Relationship Therapy uses this context to transform intimate relationships into a therapeutic encounter for each partner’s psychological and spiritual self-completion.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• describe the major tenets of Imago and describe the Imago dialogue process and the three stages of dialogue;
• describe the difference between the individual and the relational paradigms;
• describe, demonstrate, and facilitate the three steps of the dialogical process and its application to various issues; and
• assess couples level of dysfunction and apply appropriate therapeutic interventions.

The workshop is credited by the Imago International Institute toward certification for clinical professionals who wish to become certified Imago Therapists.

CE/CME are available and included in the tuition. $50 materials fee; include when you register. Harville Hendrix is also teaching (with Helen LaKelly Hunt) Getting the Love You Want, September 25-27, 2009.

Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, are cocreators of Imago Relationship Therapy and the concept of the “conscious marriage.” Harville is author of Getting the Love You Want, which has been a New York Times best-seller and featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and Keeping the Love You Find, and is coauthor, with Helen, of Receiving Love, The Couples Companion, and The Personal Companion. harvillehendrix.org

Gene Shelly, MDiv, a pastoral psychotherapist and New York State licensed mental health counselor, has been in private practice since 1983. A Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, he also is an affiliate member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. geneshelly.com