Susan Kamen on Connecting Imago Relationship Therapy to Sex – Smart Sex, Smart Love with Dr. Joe Kort

Have you heard of IMAGO Relationship Therapy, but have no idea what it is? This week on Smart Sex, Smart Love, Joe meets Susan Kamen, host of “Grow Your Guru,” a weekly show on NRM Streamcast. Susie is a certified Imago therapist and relationship specialist, teaching people the imago dialogue process to create safety, and to allow someone to be heard, especially on difficult topics like sex! Susie and Joe talk all things Imago relationship therapy, and how Imago therapy is different. Do you have conflict in your relationship? Are you looking for an opportunity for some healing and growth in your dialogue with your partner? Then, this is the podcast for you! Listen to Susie explain how collaborative a process Imago therapy is, and how it can significantly benefit you within your relationship and gain a better understanding of yourself and your partner.

Dr. Joe Kort:                       Welcome to Smart Sex, Smart Love. We're talking about sex goes beyond the taboos and talking about love goes beyond the honeymoon. I'm Dr Joe Kort. Thanks for tuning in.

Okay, welcome to Smart Sex, Smart Love. I'm Dr Joe Kort. Today, my guest is psychotherapist, Susie Kamen. She's a certified Imago therapist and relationship therapist. Susie teaches people the Imago Dialogue Process to create safety and to allow someone to be heard, especially on difficult topics like sex. She helps people get out of their own way by examining issues through different lenses, so that they can create more of the life that they deserve and desire.

Susie believes that personal growth, introspection, and connection are fostered best in a safe and nonjudgmental environment. She provides a sacred space in which clients can safely explore issues, learn new essential communication skills, and create the life and the relationships they're seeking.

As an Imago therapist and relationship therapist, Susie works with couples, individuals, families, and adolescents. She's also a Imago Relationships International member, a certified strategic intervention life coach, and the vice president of Imago Michigan. Plus, Susie is host of Grow Your Guru, a weekly show on NRM StreamCast created on a belief that within each of us is our inner guru, our true self, which is beautiful, whole, complete and worthy. Welcome, Susie.

Susie Kamen:                     Hey, Joe. That sounded great. Thanks for writing that for me. Can you send that back to me, so I can use that?

Dr. Joe Kort:                       Absolutely.

Susie Kamen:                     Thanks.

Dr. Joe Kort:                       Well, so welcome. Let's let everyone know that you're the one who had me get started on doing podcasts because I wanted to do it. And then I went on your podcast and saw how easy the people that you hired made it and I found people of my own. It's easy.

Susie Kamen:                     I'm so happy you're doing it. You are such a gift. Also, as a fellow Imago colleague, I think that you have a gift and a message. I'm so happy you're doing this, and I'm so grateful to be on your show, so thank you.

Dr. Joe Kort:                       Thank you. Let's start. Let's just tell our caller or the listeners, what is a Imago Relationship Therapy?

Susie Kamen:                     Well, we would need a number of shows to dive deep into it. Essentially, Imago means image in Latin. It was founded by Harville Hendrix and his wife Helen LaKelly Hunt over 30 years ago. It is essentially a philosophy, a theory about why people pick each other.

And while that's super interesting and can be helpful, the part that I spend a lot of my time in and that I'm extremely passionate about in particular about talking about difficult topics is teaching what they came up with, which is called the intentional dialogue.