Do you and your partner struggle to really understand each other and lack empathy? This can be especially true in partnerships that are characterized by different cultural influences. I work with an attachment-based and culturally sensitive approach that supports you and your partner to communicate in a solution-focused, safe and appreciative way. This opens the door to a deeper mutual understanding, so that you can change your relationship and your life.
Cosmopolitan Choice – Couple Counseling is my approach to counseling couples by raising awareness of each other’s cultural backgrounds, holding space for your frustrations, and teaching you to have safe conversations with each other so that you can feel seen by your partner. To do this, I merge cultural sensitivity with Imago Relationship Therapy.
How you perceive each other and react towards each other is mostly a result of your individual and cultural imprint; every couple has a unique combination of pasts. In the framework of Imago Relationship Therapy, you have the opportunity to understand these connections and how conflicts arise. It is a powerful tool for improving your relationship and connection.
Through the special form of Imago dialogue, you learn to dive into the other one´s world, to empathize with your partner, to understand your partner in a very different way – to understand with your heart – which allows stabilization and re-harmonization in your relationship.
An imago is an idealized image of attachment figures like parents or siblings, which people subconsciously acquire during childhood. This ideal subsequently influences the decisions and actions of adults.
The founders of the Imago Relationship Therapy, Harville Hendrix and Helen Hunt, assume that people always select partners that resemble the idealized imago (corresponding with the mother or father) with their positive and negative characteristics. The Imago method is furthermore based on the assumption that unresolved childhood conflicts and problems influence the adult person’s relationships. Particularly the negative characteristics of the imago offer the option to work through conflicts experienced during childhood and to overcome them.
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It’s not easy to anticipate someone’s every wish or to even know exactly what one’s partner feels or thinks. This is particularly the case in relationships, which are characterized by cross-cultural influences. Couples who don’t share their first language meet certain obstacles – as it’s not always easy to strike the right tone to express oneself or to fully sense the fine nuances of what was said by one’s opposite.
The central factors of the Imago Relationship Therapy are empathy, understanding and compassion. Alone or as a couple: work with me on your relationship in a focused and structured manner.
Once the source for your conflict has been acknowledged, you and your partner will have a better basis to understand each other. Now, you can actively support each other in overcoming these specific issues and at the same time initiate a sustainable re-harmonization of your relationship.
Sometimes, couples ask me if it is even possible to move beyond the current obstacles? And, how many sessions do we need?
My honest answer is: it depends. It depends on whether you both of you really want to change the current situation or not. It depends on what your goal is. Sometimes, it is love to say goodbye. Sometimes, it is love to hang in. Both situations may need professional assistance for a period of time.
As your counselor I am facilitating a power partnership, a safe space to grow and change and my professional knowledge – thus assistance. The actual transformational work is done by both of you.
If you are interested in turning around the current situation, please contact me.
During an intensive Cosmopolitan Choice – Couple Counseling weekend, you and your partner will participate in coaching sessions in a stimulating and relaxing wellness environment combined with spa treatments. Individual change processes are initiated in a focused manner apart from your daily routine and enhanced by a wellness program.
You will learn when communication between two people is effective and when it is not, and you will find out where most problems in a relationship arise and what is necessary to recover and re-establish a successful relationship between partners.
NEXT RETREAT TAKES PLACE IN 2025.
