Certified Imago Therapist for Couples in Liverpool

The wait is finally over and I did it! I’m excited to share with you that I have achieved my dream and am now a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist! It started as a tiny whisper of an idea back in March 2022 and quickly grew into a consuming passion to help couples.

I’ve had my own personal experiences of heartache and heartbreak in relationships, however, this certification represents hundreds of hours of specialised training in relationship therapy that has profoundly changed the way I view conflict, connection, and love itself.

This isn’t just about hanging a new certificate on the wall. It’s about bringing a deeper, more structured, and more transformative set of communication tools into my private practice to help couples move out of being in constant power struggles into conscious, healing connections with each other.

In this post, I want to explain what this means for couples and individuals here in Formby and the wider Liverpool area seeking relationship counselling.

What is Imago Therapy?

Imago Relationship Therapy (developed by Dr. Harville Hendrix and Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt) is designed to identify and work with deeper patterns in relationships, particularly those rooted in childhood experiences.

The core principles of Imago Therapy focus on the idea of the "Imago" which is an unconscious image of familiar love formed during childhood based on interactions with our parents and early caregivers.

Here’s how Imago Therapy identifies deeper patterns:

• Unconscious Attraction: The theory suggests that we are unconsciously attracted to partners who have both the positive and negative behaviours of our childhood caregivers. This is known as the "Imago-Match."
• Re-enacting Childhood Wounds: This unconscious choice of partner is believed to set the stage for re-creating familiar, often unresolved, experiences from our childhoods. Current relationship conflicts are viewed as an opportunity to identify and heal these old, unmet childhood needs and emotional wounds.
• The Power Struggle: Imago Therapy views recurring conflicts and arguments in adult relationships (the "Power Struggle" phase) not as a sign of incompatibility, but as the manifestation of these deeper, unconscious patterns attempting to resolve our past experiences.
• Structured Dialogue: The central technique, the Imago Dialogue, is a structured communication process (involving mirroring, validation, and empathy) that helps couples slow down their reactive patterns and move from blaming and defensiveness to understanding the unmet needs and historical triggers that fuel their arguments.

In short, the main goal of Imago Therapy is to shift couples from unconscious reactions to conscious responses by illuminating the familiar, historical emotional patterns that drive their current interactions.

How This Benefits You

As a Certified Imago Therapist, I can offer you:

Structured Communication Tools – Learn the Imago Dialogue, a powerful technique that helps couples truly hear each other without defensiveness or conflict escalating.

Deeper Understanding – Discover why certain issues keep repeating in your relationship and how to break these cycles.

Healing Through Connection – Transform your relationship wounds into opportunities for growth and deeper intimacy.

Who Can Benefit? Imago Therapy works wonderfully for couples in Formby, Southport, Liverpool, and surrounding areas who are:

• Experiencing frequent arguments or communication breakdown
• Feeling disconnected from their partner
• Wanting to strengthen an already good relationship
• Considering separation but hoping to reconnect first

If you're looking for couples counselling or relationship therapy in Formby or Liverpool, I'd love to help you rediscover the connection you're seeking with each other, and I'm passionate about bringing these evidence-based techniques to our local community.