Imago Relationship herapy, birthed in the late 1970s, paralleled the emergence of relational therapy but with an exclusive emphasis on marriage and other forms of couplehood. In contrast to the skill-based marital therapies, Imago included identifying the impact of childhood on marital choice and marital dynamics and the importance of acquiring relational skills. he central relational skill was the Imago Couples Dialogue, and the role of the therapist was radically altered from “expert” to “facilitator” of the dialogue process.
Given the Imago theses that all pathology is relational and that the source of all relational dificulty is a connectional rupture in childhood that is recreated in the adult intimate partnership, Imago Dialogue became a powerful therapeutic intervention to help couples restore connection in their relationship and thereby repairing the rupture of connection in childhood.
Although the Imago process can take from a few months to a few years, because it is a structured process with an active facilitator, it lends itself to an eicient short-term couples therapy.his perception of the potential of Imago as a short-term couples therapy that could respond to the limiting parameters of managed care was the brainchild of Wade Luquet. Focusing on couples internalizing and practicing the Imago Dialogue, he has devised an eicient model that helps couples connect the dynamics of their relationship with their childhood, identify the replication of the childhood rupture in their relational rupture, and mutually contribute to the healing of each other by restoring connection.
Because this book has survived a decade of use by hundreds of therapists, its value is intrinsic and apparent, and the prognosis of this second edition seems obviously positive.