Imago Relationship Therapy Summary

This book could be utilized in practice by providing the clinician with a better understanding of the client’s mate selection patterns. For instance, a client displays a pattern of selecting mates that are abusive or unhealthy partners. Despite the clinician’s countless attempts to education and to advise the client on the harm of continuing to select unhealthy partners, the patient continues to do so. With the information provided in this book the clinician can gain a better understanding of the client’s behavior as well as enhance empathy for the patient’s inner struggles. The clinician can also provide education in a manner that the client understands and explain the relations of their actions and sense of self. A clinician working with …show more content…
The Imago Relationship Therapy (IRT) also had limits to it, such as: requiring clients to be in touch with their emotions and feelings, which may not come naturally to some; the expectation that domestic violence does not occur in the home; and that both clients are able to be flexible and open to what the other has to say and feel. Some clients may not know how to naturally express themselves or articulate what they are feeling. Emotional and feeling expression is a skill and cannot be expected of all clients to be familiar with prior to the therapy. Miscommunicating feelings or feeling overwhelmed by the inability to accurately express feelings may reduce the expected outcomes of the intended therapy. Therefore, the clinician may need to alter the counseling session to fit both clients’ needs. Additionally, the emphases Hendrix places on the needs of the child can easily result in a client re-visiting or visiting a traumatic experience. The clinician will have be sensitive and competent to address the trauma. The clinician also needs to be aware of the client’s individual privacy and the possibility that the client’s partner is not cognizant that the traumatic event even took …show more content…
One of the main issues is the issue of uncovering a traumatic event without the proper structure to address it. This is particularly an issue; in cases that one partner is unaware of the trauma and has now been exposed to it in a couples therapy session. This form of therapy could make a person feel uncomfortable or pressured to share something that he or she is not emotionally prepared to share. The clinician must be sensitive to the client’s privacy and emotional needs. Clients that have divorced in the past or failed at couple’s therapy in the past may find IRT to be intimidating. Clinicians must be sensitive the clients’ backgrounds and reduce judgment on past possible actions. Additionally, clients that adapted unhealthy ego defenses may find themselves blaming their caregivers for their actions and thus removing the focus from the self. For example a client that resorts to denial may have a difficult time seeing his/her part in the strained relationship. Then after learning about the repressed childhood needs in IRT, the client may continue to refuse responsibility and attempt to place it fully on his/her caregivers. Although, Hendrix may have been aware of this example occurring in therapy he did not provide the readers with the content on how to manage this. Therefore, the clinician could fail the couple in therapy or contribute to a larger