"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'"… Eric Fromm

 

Marriage and Family Therapist

Stephen R. Plumlee is an Eastern Orthodox priest and a psychotherapist specializing in couples, and insight-oriented individual and group counseling.   He is certified in Imago Relationship Therapy by the Imago Institute as both a clinician and couples therapy workshop presenter.  Dr. Plumlee holds a Master of Divinity and a PhD in psychoanalytic psychology and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Mental Health Counselor.  

IMAGO Therapy is based on the work of renowned marriage therapist, Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt PhD, authors of best sellers, Getting the Love You Want, Keeping the Love you Find and Giving the Love That Heals. 

The premise of their work is a way of understanding the basis of intimate relationships.  It focuses on what created the original attraction, what each partner implicitly hopes for and expects in the relationship and methods to recapture the initial energy with more realistic behaviors and promises. 

“What we are all striving for is authenticity, a spirit to spirit connection”.   Most people are coupled with someone who brings up all their past issues, says Harville Hendrix in his appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.  “The purpose of marriage is to finish your childhood and if you finish your childhood, you will live happily ever after.”