Imago is an approach developed by Dr. Harville Hendrix and his wife Helen LaKelly Hunt in the late 20th century. It combines psychological theory about the developmental journey and its present-day implications, practical communication tools, and a general philosophy of life. Imago can be used in individual, couples, family, or organizational counseling. One of the advantages of the method is that you can implement it at home, even after counseling ends, and continue to grow as individuals, as a couple, and as a family towards a more fulfilling and happy life.
The psychologist Hedi Schleifer developed Encounter-centered Couples Therapy® (or Transforamtion) based on the Imago approach, Martin Buber's philosophy, and several other sources, as well as her own experience and developments. The approach aims for a substantial and sustainable transformation in the couple's relationship and in each partner individually. This approach can also be taken home into life after counseling. You will learn how to turn your partnership into an adventure and a laboratory of growth within a safe and warm space.
Emotionally Focused Therapy is an individual, couples, and family therapy approach developed by the psychologists Leslie Greenberg and Susan Johnson. The approach is based on John Bowlby's attachment theory and detailed analyses of videotapes documenting therapy sessions. Clients gain an understanding of their emotional mechanisms and more effective ways to process and respond to them. They learn to identify the cycle they are trapped in, break free from it, and make room for the vulnerable parts of each of them. A series of academic studies supports the effectiveness of the approach.
In addition to the imago approaches for families and EFT for families, I also take from the classic approaches of family therapy such as structural and systemic counseling or the contextual approach. Structural counseling (Minuchin, Whittaker, Bowen, etc.) looks at the family as a system striving for equilibrium, traces the dynamics between the family trying to stabilize the system, and the individuals within it whose needs have changed. The contextual approach (Naz) emphasizes the intergenerational inheritance, the types of loyalties and entitlements in the family.
The main tools I use in counseling are the encounter therapy, the imago and the EFT, but I acknowledge that not every approach is suitable for every couple and every situation, and therefore I integrate other approaches such as AEDP, Nonviolent Communication, Bibliotherapy and more. At the end of the day, each couple or family creates with me a unique group that does not exist anywhere else, and together we create our language, our consulting space, and the most useful ways to move forward. I also bring to the consultation room my personal and professional experience, my principles,
my personality, my past experience. The trust and confidence built in the room is the key to any consultative approach. In all the approaches I draw from, you will find elements of empathy, reflection, and affirmation. All of these approaches prioritize relationships (both between you and your partner and between you and me). Our shared goal is for you to leave counseling as a different family, one that has new ways of coping with daily life and continuing to grow.
