Short-Term Couples Therapy, Second Edition: The Imago Model in Action

It has been nearly ten years since the publication of Short-Term Couples Therapy: The Imago Model in Action. In that time, the book has sold over 8000 copies plus book club sales. The book has been used regularly by therapists all over the country who are interested in this effective and now well-known model of working with couples. Building on the precepts of the Imago Relationship Therapy Model, as introduced in Dr. Harville Hendrix's best-selling Getting the Love you Want, Short Term Couples Therapy makes available to the professional therapist the technique and rationale of this evolutionary approach to working with couples in a brief therapy context. The six-session format is laid out clearly and cogently so that its potential for application is immediately apparent, especially given the parameters of employee assistance programs and managed care. The essence of the Imago Model is distilled into a practical, workable methodology. The first edition of this book offered a unique reality-basedapproach to facilitating effective couple interaction, so that the Couples Dialogue is internalized and enduring. The couple then moves on with a more flexible and authentic relationship in place, and the therapist can feel good about letting them go. This proposed second edition of the book. would update processes and theory. During the past ten years, there have been major advances in the practice of Imago Relationship Therapy. An updated edition of the book would reflect these advances and would use revised terms, case dialogue, and resources. There will be other changes made within the text to clarify processes and tighten up the writing. The author will write a preface to the second edition outlining the changes in the field of mental health, and Imago Therapy's response to those changes, since the first edition. Other planned changes include an additional chapter on "Healthy Coupling: The Basics," which would include recent research on the qualities of healthy couples to establish a general basisfor the clinician's book. Recent research has shown that the tools that produce happiness and long-term relationships include a deep friendship, an understanding of the other, putting the other before ones self, humor, constant caring behaviors, and a communication style that repairs problems before they get too big. This chapter will set the stage for the work of Imago Relationship Therapy that is to follow.

Wade Luquet is associate professor of Sociology at Gwynedd-Mercy College in suburban Philadelphia, PA.