Explain The Imago Relationship Therapy

Imago
Relationship Therapy

Imago
relationship therapy (IRT) is an approach that seeks to provide couples with
the mechanisms they require to relate to one another in healthier ways and
uncover the emotional pathway acquired from childhood that drove them to their
current condition (Gehlert et al.,
2017). This type of and spiritual strategies
with Western psychological techniques to help couples unravel their unconscious
aspects. In other words, through IRT, couples can consistently achieve a
pleasant ending, recover, and grow together by examining the problem itself.

Imago is often a Latin
phrase that means ‘image.’ Thus, in IRT, imago defines the unconscious,
idealized notion of familiar love that emerges during toddlerhood and stays
unchanged in maturity. In other words, the imago relationship therapy bases an
individual’s development of the imago on their early relationship with their
parents or any other present adults during their early life. Depending on a
child’s unique image of what love is, they will adopt certain behaviors or
“survival patterns” (either through blocking or expressing
personality characteristics) to acquire love and remain secure (Schmidt & Gelhert, 2017).

In
most relationships, conflicts frequently arise from an underlying emotional
dissatisfaction felt within the relationship setting. Thus, in the case of Mike
and Jan, an IRT therapist would aim to identify the root cause for the
emotional hurt and establish the elements that cause the problems to manifest
in the relationship. The first session would be to establish each partner’s imago
that could be the cause of the relationship problems. The therapist would then
use the intentional dialogue process to facilitate the healthy communication,
which involves speaking and listening approaches.

The
intentional dialogue process has three steps: mirroring, validation, and
empathy. Thus, the IRT therapist would engage Mike and Jan in repeating their
partner’s words until they comprehend one another’s expressions (Mirroring).
The next step (validation) will require Mike and Jan to express what they
understood from each other’s submissions. Lastly, the therapist could initiate
empathy as the final step. This phase encourages both Mike and Jan to
appreciate their situation and develop an intimate connection with one another.