Although imago therapy is not a widely known concept, it is considered to be a variation of couples therapy, which helps boost trust and communication in the relationship. Here are some of the other benefits of imago therapy:

1. Helps in managing conflicts and fighting in a healthy manner
2. Helps couples confront important issues rather than run away from them
3. Looks at the root cause of lack of sexual or emotional intimacy
4. Helps manage the root cause of jealousy, infidelity, or trust issues in relationships
5. Helps in having clear communication without any blame game
6. Overcoming childhood trauma in an effective way
7. Working on defensive and critical aspects of the relationship

While there are many other things that imago couples therapy can help with, these are some of the major things it helps tackle.

Imago therapy is based on the idea that unresolved childhood issues tend to show up in relationships and creates an unconscious image of what love and relationships should look like. To curb these issues, imago relationship therapy teaches how to resolve those wounded patterns and build healthy patterns for yourself.

It is done through the following concepts:

1. Healing wounded patterns of childhood by understanding your childhood conflicts and making new patterns for yourself and your relationship.
2. Being present with each other by learning new things and trying out different things with each other.
3. Learning new ways to spend time and communicating with your partner by having an open-ended conversation rather than talking in monosyllables.
4. Replacing judgement with being curious and inquisitive Replacing judgement with being curious and inquisitive about your partner’s likes and dislikes. If you are not able to understand something, learn to communicate that to your partner.
5. Finding different ways to spend time with each other, like going on dates, understanding their love language, and filling the relationship with complete love and care.

While imago couples therapy is all about understanding how the distorted image of love and relationships from childhood affects your present relationship, the image is rectified with your therapist working along with you by providing an empathetic and safe environment. Let’s see how:

1. Unveiling childhood wounds

   When you start taking imago relationship therapy, the therapist will ask you about your childhood and how you perceived relationships as a child. This can lead to difficult conversations, emotions, and memories altogether. However, to get to the other side, it is important to power through and talk about it openly without any hesitation.

2. Healing the inner child

   When wounded childhood patterns are revealed, the difficult part of the journey begins, which is healing your inner child, which has a major effect on your present state and your relationship. With the help of Imago Couples Therapy, you are able to understand how your wounded patterns have an impact on your inner child and build conscious strategies to work on them.

3. Empathy and validation for partners

   In imago couples therapy, the couples are asked to empathize with and validate their partners to foster a relationship of understanding, especially in relationships where there are a lot of conflicts. This is mostly done through role-plays, trying out new ways of communicating, or having uncomfortable conversations to understand each other.

4. Practicing imago dialogue

   Imago dialogue is one of the techniques to strengthen understanding and build healthy communication in couples. In this, one is the sender and the other is the receiver. The sender shares whatever information and feelings they wish to share and the receiver's task is to listen to it without interrupting or judging. Doing this fosters active listening and makes the other person feel validated.

5. Home assignments

   The therapist also gives home assignments to couples, which may include practicing the activities learned in the sessions, which helps foster empathy and communication between the couple. They may also be asked to come up with new ideas to surprise each other, learn each other's love language, and do one new thing every week to keep the surprise element in the relationship alive.

The main aim of any type of couples therapy is to improve the overall happiness and growth of the relationship and that is what imago therapy also does. Here are the benefits of imago therapy:

1. Heals wounded patterns

   By talking about your childhood difficulties and how they made your belief system develop theories that might not be healthy for you, imago therapy brings the reality of your wounds out in the open so you can heal them.

2. Understanding early attachment styles

   Imago therapy reveals your attachment styles from childhood and how they have an impact on you currently.

3. Conflicts are used for growth

   In Imago Couples Therapy, conflicts are seen as stepping stones in a relationship that usually hint that there is something deeper that the couple needs to talk about.

4. Team effort is prioritised

   In imago relationship therapy, the focus is not only on what the therapist is saying but also on the two partners and their collaborative effort to make the relationship work.