Imago Relationship Therapy is designed to help conflict in relationships become opportunities for healing and growth. Imago therapy isn’t limited to romantic relationships – it can be used for family conflict, in professional settings, as well as with friends.

What is Imago relationship therapy?

Imago is all about deepening relationships and turning conflict into an opportunity for compassion and growth. There’s an outline of communicating in this style of therapy called ‘Imago dialogue’ and it involves three steps: mirroring, validation and empathy.

For instance, during a counseling session at the Holistic Counseling Center of Long Island, one person starts as the ‘sender’ and the other the ‘receiver’. (Don’t worry, you switch roles half way through!)

Through specified / outlined steps given by your therapist, the sender expresses one concern/worry that they have in the relationship. The receiver then learns a structured way of receiving the information from that person. They learn to validate and empathize with the sender’s message. Then once the sender is satisfied with saying everything they feel is necessary to get their point across, the receiver confirms the information and shows that they understand.

Then the whole process starts again with the roles switched. The receiver becomes the sender and vice versa. This structured way of communicating teaches couples / families / individuals ways to truly hear and empathize with one another.

Family Conflict Counseling Services in Long Island, New York

As Imago relationship therapists, we use a perspective to understand family history, communication patterns and dynamics to see the ‘bigger picture’ of the presenting problem and to develop strategies for lasting improvement.

We help to enhance understanding and facilitate healthy interactions between family members.

Families come in all different sizes, dynamics, and situations. Imago relationship therapy techniques can work with family conflict in any scenario:

• Nuclear family
• Same-sex family
• Single-parent family
• Step-family
• Extended family
• Grandparent family

If you are having issues dealing with family conflict and are interested in counseling, contact us today to find out more.

(631) 248-1727

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