Avatar Meets Marriage Counseling
"Tell me about your childhood". Imago's avatar-based relationship help
I sent out a press-release this morning about one of the more exciting ways we can offer marriage counseling help on the Imago website. Here it is! I hope you find time to have a talk online with Kara. She would love to hear from you.
New York, NY (PRWEB) March 17, 2010 — Imago’s new “marriage counseling” Avatar doesn’t have a blue face and run around jungles. She lives in your computer screen, and provides penetrating insights into your marriage or relationship.
This is the new face of online relationship help, dreamed up at Imago Relationships International, one of the oldest and most established names in the business. Imago’s Executive Director, Tim Atkinson, explains “When my first marriage broke up I avoided marriage counseling like the plague. I thought it would just be ineffective and unpleasant. Now I know better, I wanted to create something which gives people a taste of how much great stuff there is to learn about creating a strong relationship.”
Avatars are animated people, or creatures, who can interact with you online. People create avatars to represent themselves when they enter games like “Second Life”. Imago’s Avatars are animated people that you can talk to about your relationship.
Imago’s first interactive application was called “Home Late…again”. As the game opens you are faced with an angry partner, demanding why you returned late from home without calling first. Apologies seem to add oil on troubled water. The game demonstrates the value of using elements from the “Imago dialogue”, a conflict resolution process which lies at the heart of Imago’s approach to marriage counseling.
“My Relationship Story” goes to a new level of interactivity. The avatar asks you a range of questions about your relationship and uses it to construct a story about how your partner may or may not be fulfilling your emotional needs. “She doesn’t always get it right” admits Atkinson “but the point is to create awareness of how the past influences the present. It’s marriage education, not therapy.”
Imago first grabbed the public attention in 1988 when its co-founder Harville Hendrix, PhD published the best-seller “Getting The Love You Want.” It was one of the first books to make sense of the complex field of marriage and long-term relationships, drawing on some of the great psychological and spiritual traditions and weaving them into a system that every couple could understand and make use of. “Imago isn’t feeding the hungry, we’re giving them fishing rods” comments Atkinson.
Hendrix and his partner Helen LaKelly Hunt PhD created a worldwide community of over 1,000 Certified Imago Therapists, one of the largest networks of couples therapy practice in the world. Teaching clients how to resolve relationship problems themselves has always been important to the approach. Therapy clients are encouraged to also attend a weekend workshop where they learn about the emotional forces that shape their relationship. “The combination of workshops and therapy is more effective, and saves money too” comments Atkinson.
The latest avatar-led online programs bring Imago’s commitment to relationship education into the cutting edge of interactive technology. “We haven’t seen anything else like it in this field, yet…” says Atkinson “My hope is couples will love this so much we can build a whole online teaching environment.”
Is it the end of Marriage Counseling as we know it? Education tools like this may be all that some couples need to strengthen their relationship, but research indicates that most couples put up with a rocky relationship for years until they seek the help they need. “I’m just hoping less people make my mistake of choosing divorce over counseling” says Atkinson “I call this the Imago Test Drive. It’s easier to commit to seeing a therapist when you can trust that they are using a process which you understand and like.”
To test drive the Imago avatar visit Avatar Marriage Counseling
Imago Relationships International is a 501c3 nonprofit based in New York City, providing couples counseling and workshops in over 25 countries.
Souns like a good idea and what many couples need. Marriage education could well decrease the need for marriage councelling and lead to fewer divorces. Afterall, many couples that get divorced, do so because they didn’t know how to resolve their problems or comunicate effectively with their partner.
Mike
Good post. Very useful info that i have read today.
I have also bookmarked this site so it would be easy for me to come back.
Thanks for this.
[...] Marriage Counseling meets Avatar: The Relationship blog | The Relationship [...]
This is really great… at least help can be sought almost everywhere! Any marriage that catches a cold can be treated at the early onset
Great article, and this seems very interesting!
Marriage is something that we all know is not easy, and it takes work and sometimes some help.
Too many times the first things some couples wonder is if separation can help their marriage, before looking for help.
This seems like a very useful way to solve some of your marriage problems.
Marriage counselors help couples to understand and restore their marriage. Today it is very common to even the most successful ones, have long consistent arguments. Marriage counseling is very helpful in these of conditions. Experienced marriage counselors offer various counseling programs like couple therapies, relationship counseling programs, family counseling and on-line counseling services to the couples and families. Counselors give many communication tips to couples having conflicts due to communication gap.
Hi
Marriage or Relationship Counseling can help the couples to have an idea of what to expect from a marriage and what not. It can also help to fix any indifferences between the couples thereby helping a relationship to work.
Thanks
Marriage is the most beautiful thing in our life. No doubt that it is the happiest phase as; it introduces the person who loves you the most. You cannot marry someone just because he or she is very beautiful. Marriage is a union between two hearts, which love to spend time with each other. This journey can never be smooth, every relation has to experience some roller coaster rides. In fact, you understand the person best during adversities.
Not Feeling the Love?…
+related+blog…
If Your Marriage Relationship is Suffering From Argument Syndrome – Reading This Could Help!…
+related+blog…
Kara seems like a lovely lady, but how effective do you think online counseling is versus the real deal? Would love to hear your thoughts!
I don’t really see anything we are doing on the Imago website as online counseling. I see it more as making some introductory marriage education readily available to people.
The way I see it is that its hard for people to make the decision to go to therapy. So if we can offer them something to make it easier for them to finally make that call, then that seems like a good thing. And maybe for some couples, they don’t really need counseling, but will find that what they can learn, either online, or from reading, makes all the difference.
For those who do choose to sit down with an Imago Therapist, the potential for deep and rewarding change is enormous. I hope many make that choice.
Best wishes
Tim
Sounds great. Very convenient and this what most married couple needs. To save a rocky relationship, it’s better to see a counselor to find out what’s wrong and what’s need to be done. Well, this is really of big help.
How about watching some video on youtube?
___________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVbrc4z8F6k