Imago Therapy Training: Help Couples Move from Conflict to Connection

Why This Training Matters

Imago Therapy, also called Imago Relationship Therapy, is built on a simple but powerful idea: the partner we choose often mirrors the unresolved wounds of our earliest relationships, and the friction that follows is not a sign of incompatibility but an invitation to grow. Developed by Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, the model gives couples a structured way to talk and truly hear each other, even when the topic is painful.

At the center of the approach is the Imago Dialogue, a three step process of mirroring, validating, and empathizing that replaces reactive arguing with real understanding. Rather than trying to fix a couple's problems from the outside, you're teaching partners a communication skill they can use for the rest of their relationship, long after therapy ends.

For clinicians, Imago Therapy fills a specific gap. Many couples arrive in session already fluent in blame and shutdown, and they need something concrete to practice in the room before insight can take hold. Imago gives you that structure. It integrates comfortably alongside Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and attachment based approaches, which is part of why so many integrative couples therapists build it into their toolkit rather than treating it as a standalone specialty.

Clients come to this work through conflict around communication breakdowns, infidelity, chronic disconnection, and the kind of "we just don't talk anymore" stuckness that brings couples into your office in the first place. Whether you're new to couples work or you've been doing it for years, Imago Dialogue is a skill you can start using with clients almost immediately.

Expert Voices

Learn directly from clinicians who've spent their careers in this work.

Learning Imago Therapy means learning from the people who built it. Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, and Harville Hendrix, PhD, co-founded Imago Relationship Therapy and spent decades training therapists worldwide through Imago Relationships International. Harville is the author of the New York Times bestseller Getting the Love You Want, which has sold more than two million copies, and Oprah Winfrey has called him the "Marriage Whisperer" after featuring his work numerous times.

PESI also brings you integrative voices who bridge Imago with other leading modalities. Tammy Nelson, PhD, a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist and Advanced Imago Clinician, teaches how Imago principles combine with sex therapy and attachment work for a fuller picture of relational healing. Jill Squyres Groubert, PhD, a master couples therapist and viral TED speaker, weaves Imago technique into an integrative framework alongside Gottman Method and EFT for clinicians who want range across their caseload.