Part 1: Imago Relationship Theory: From the Individual to the Relational and Core Skills with Founders Harville Hendrix and Helen La Kelly Hunt
CE courses & credits for psychologists in United States
US psychologists: Explore Imago Relationship Therapy's core skills and relational paradigms. Learn structured practices like Dialogue for couples in our continuing education courses.
About this course in the United States
This course features Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt, founders of Imago Relationship Therapy, explaining the evolution from an individual-centered view of psychotherapy to a relational paradigm. US clinicians will learn the historical and scientific shifts behind this change, the stages of relationships, and the structured Imago practices of Dialogue, Zero Negativity, Empathy, and Affirmation. The course also shows how childhood experiences and unmet needs reappear in adult partnerships and how the Imago match can support healing and sustained intimacy. It offers CE credits for psychologists through an APA-approved sponsor.
This talk explores the evolution of relational understanding from a worldview of separateness toward one of connection. Beginning with an understanding of the individual-centred approach to psychotherapy, focusing on the Self, the talk concludes by explaining the relational paradigm as the space between individuals. Imago Relationship Therapy integrates different relational perspectives, and this talk describes the structured Imago practices: Dialogue, Zero Negativity, Empathy, and Affirmation to help couples move from reactivity to intentional, conscious relating.
Sections
- The Individual Paradigm
- The Relational Paradigm
- Stages of relationships
- Imago practices
- The Imago Dialogue
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
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- Explain the historical and scientific shifts from an individualistic model of human experience to a relational paradigm, including contributions from Newtonian physics, Freud, Buber, and quantum theory.
- Describe the core principles and practices of Imago Relationship Therapy—especially the Dialogue process—and how they cultivate connection, differentiation, and emotional regulation in couples.
- Identify how childhood experiences and unmet needs re-emerge in adult relationships, and how concepts like the Imago match can be used to support healing and sustained intimacy.
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