Let’s explore what conscious partners know. I would characterize most relationships, certainly ours was before we knew about Imago Relationship Therapy. It is described as unconscious, old brain, and reactive. For example, if my partner came on too strong, my reactive response was to shut down. If I step back and look at that response, […]
Chap. 9: The Imago Dialogue – Empathy
The third step of the Safe Conversation Process is empathy – getting in touch with the sender’s feelings. Empathy is the communication to another person that you hear and understand his or her feelings and that they make sense. It is really a guess at what they are feeling. I might say, “You seem angry”, […]
Chap 9. – Imago Dialogue: Validation
“To make somebody feel valued as a person, or feel that his or her ideas or opinions are worthwhile … is precisely what the second step of Imago Dialogue, validation, is meant to do. Very simply, it sends the message from the receiver to the sender, ‘You make sense, and what makes sense is …”(p.206) […]
