Making Marriage Simple (22 page)

2.
Benjamin Scafidi, principal investigator, “The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing: First-Ever Estimates for the Nation and for All Fifty States,” Institute for American Values, 2008; available at
www.americanvalues.org
, p. 20.

3.
North Carolina Family Policy Council, “Landmark Study Estimates Costs of Family Fragmentation,” April 16, 2008;
http://ncfamily.org/stories/080416s1.html
.

About the Authors and Imago Relationship Therapy

A former Baptist minister and university professor, Harville has more than forty years of experience as a clinical pastoral counselor, therapist, educator, clinical trainer, and public speaker on marriage and relationship therapy. Helen began her career as a high-school teacher in an economically depressed part of Dallas, which inspired her interest in promoting greater equality and healing in the world. She has cofounded several organizations and movements that promote women’s and girl’s equality. She met Harville, who was seeking to write about a new kind of marriage—an equal partnership marriage. They dated, and in time Helen proposed. Harville heartily accepted. And their marriage became the incubator for Imago Relationship Therapy.

Harville is the author of the
New York Times, USA Today
, and
Publishers Weekly
bestselling books
Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples
and
Keeping the Love You Find: A Guide for Singles
. He and Helen have also co-authored seven books, including the bestselling
Giving the Love That Heals: A Guide for Parents
. In all, their books have been published in more than thirty-two languages, with more than three million copies in print worldwide.

They live in New York and have six children and five grandchildren. And they are genuinely and truly happily married!

Imago Relationship Theory percolated in the minds and hearts of Harville and Helen for many years, and was officially co-created by them in the early 1980s. Harville’s first appearance on
The Oprah Winfrey Show
in 1988 made her top twenty list of most influential moments. Oprah said that Imago Theory changed how she viewed her relationship, and she hinted that Imago Theory was ushering in a new kind of marriage.

The basic concept of Imago is that our primary relationship with our partner can—with the right tools—be a safe and sacred space. If we do the work of creating this kind of space, we not only build the relationship of our dreams but grow as individuals into a fuller, healthier, more fulfilled version of ourselves.

To help couples achieve fulfillment, Helen and Harville cofounded Imago Relationships International, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create a new model of marriage and to transform the world—one relationship at a time. Presently there are more than 60,000 couples being helped annually by over 2,200 Imago Therapists practicing in 33 countries. There are also roughly 100 Imago educators, a new group of non-therapists passionate about spreading Imago throughout the world as well. And this number is growing daily.

Harville and Helen also bring the concepts of Imago to couples in workshops that they—and other Imago therapists—deliver worldwide.

You CAN create the marriage of your dreams! We’re here to help …

You are not alone! You might have a nagging feeling that your relationship could be better. Maybe you’re in a job transition or you’re about to experience an empty nest—and you’re wondering how to not only stay connected, but deepen your connection during this transition. Or it could be that you’re in full-blown conflict. Whatever your relationship story is, it can have a happy ending.

And, if you’d like to take your journey a step further, there are ways to do that too!

•
Jumpstart your journey
with a weekend workshop!

• Access our digital library for
free downloads
.

•
Connect with others
who are using the ideas and exercises in this book in our
online community
.

• Check out
Harville & Helen’s upcoming events
.

•
Find a therapist near you
and connect with one of the 2,200 Certified Imago Therapists around the world.

• Become a certified Imago Therapist and join an international community.

VISIT US AT
www.MakingMarriageSimple.com