03.00 - 07.00 PM       

Pre-Conference Workshop "Internal Family Systems & Imago" with Maya Kollman, Day 1

09.00  AM - 01.00 PM

Pre-Conference Workshop "Internal Family Systems & Imago" with Maya Kollman, Day 2

01.00 pm

Registration

02.00 pm

Official opening & welcome

02.30 pm

The broken mirror - from nightmare to a new story

Definition and classification of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. Gently lifting the curtain 

Diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities of Imago using examples from (clinical) practice 

Speakers: Davine and Dr. med. Lars Bonowski

Talk & Discussion

in German (with English translation)

The lecture will convey the classification and terminology of trauma as well as trauma-related disorders. 

This will give us a common basis for sharing our experiences and work as therapists and coaches. What is important,

the symptoms or the story behind them? We would like to present some case studies from our everyday clinical work

and practice. How can Imago be used to enable a return to a renewed “pulsation”, as movement in connection with one's

own emotions as a prerequisite for more security in a relationship? Which statements about trauma can we obtain from

our body sensations and the information stored in our nervous system and use for the process of re-integration?

“Flashbacks” or recurring nightmares often lead to withdrawal tendencies in relationships, anxiety or auto-aggressive behavior.

The resulting stress can be assumed to be the cause of secondary physical illnesses.

04.00 pm

Coffee break

04.30 pm -

06.30 pm

3 parallel Workshops:

Workshop A:

Feel the sweetness of "Liebendigkeit" (German portmanteau combining the words love and liveliness)

A workshop to support trauma integration through creativity

Facilitators: Davine & Dr. med. Lars Bonowski

In German (no English translation)

In our workshop, we invite all participants on a journey of self-discovery. The aim of the workshop is to 

tap into creativity to rediscover and/or deepen our sense of our own body and liveliness. This also offers a 

valuable opportunity for our clients to develop in interaction with their partners. Through creative techniques,

mindfulness exercises and sharing, we create a safe space in which emotions can be explored and 

physical sensations can be perceived. In the first part of the workshop, we will consciously connect with 

our bodies. With the help of “therapeutic sand” and clay, we give participants the opportunity to deepen 

their access to their “Liebendigkeit”.

In the second part, the focus is on sharing experiences of how creative processes can help to strengthen resilience

and develop a new, positive way of dealing with stressful body memories. This workshop is for everyone interested

in creative healing processes, regardless of their previous artistic experience. We look forward to an inspiring time together.

Workshop B:

Travel album of a sea eagle: Impulses for stabilising strong emotions of clients 

Facilitator: Mag.a Michaela Tomek

In German (no English translation)

In my workshop “Travel album of a sea eagle” we dive in, through, up and fly over the trauma lake and focus

on situations in couple’s work that can become visible (from above). I would like to share a few impulses

and insights from my work in my private practice with individual clients and couples. At the same time, I 

would like to give space for the power of our group and encourage a shared exchange of experiences with 

couple’s work. There will be the opportunity to experience and try out exercises for yourself using one or 

two case vignettes from group members.

The white-tailed eagle is a powerful animal, gliding calmly and steadily over the landscape, highly concen-

trated and ready to pick up a fish from the water at any time. At best, we as counselors and psychothera-

pists have the same qualities. When accompanying clients, we are often called upon to help them discover 

underlying aspects of sudden emotions and new ways of dealing with them, and to provide guidance to 

help them emerge from sometimes overflowing waters.

Workshop C:

Imago & Trauma - How to enhance a deeper understanding of the impact of early trauma on a 

couple's relationship: Imago & Internal Family Systems

Facilitator: Maya Kollman, PhD

In English (no German translation)

One of the main theoretical beliefs of Imago is that our childhood experiences deeply affect not only 

our mate choice, but how we behave when we get triggered. The meaning we make about our partner’s 

behavior is colored by the meaning we made about situations when we were growing up. Combining 

Imago with Internal Family Systems is one way to help couples take a journey within themselves while they 

also focus on the space between. By doing this powerful inward journey in the presence of the partner, it 

deepens understanding and creates greater empathy.

This workshop will give you some concrete ways to implement the inner journey while also focusing on the

space between. Through the use of personal exercises, you will learn how to utilize this additional information

in Internal Family Systems to enhance your current Imago practice and help couples achieve lasting transformation.

08.45 am

Communologue - An Introduction with Lea Simone Bogner

09.15 am

 Imago Community Conversations. Communologue – The Imago Group Experience

This offer is an opportunity for participants to share their views on four topics, in the course of four so 

called Communologues. A Communologue is an Imago group dialogue (coined from „community“ and 

„dialogue“), which is moderated by a team leader. The first round starts with an introductory sentence 

stem which each participant completes and then goes on to introduce their own ideas on the topic. Every-

body has the same amount of time for their contribution. The group leader mirrors a summary of every 

contribution. During the following two rounds, participants reflect on what they have heard and further 

explore the topic. A Communologue can be used for conflict resolution, team building, brainstorming and 

project planning processes.

For every topic, there are eight spaces available in the inner circle for active participation. Everybody else 

participates passively in an outer circle, supporting the dialogue process through their listening and their 

presence. Communologues # 1, 2 & 3 will be conducted in German, Communologue # 4 in English (without 

translation).

The four Communologue topics are:

1. Is the 90:10 concept useful when working with traumatised clients? (in German)

2. Science vs. gut instinct – contradiction or useful addition? (in German)

3. Where are the limits when using Imago in trauma-sensitive counselling? (in German)

4. Where are the points of contact between Imago & Trauma? (in English)

10.45 am

Coffee break

11.15 am

Therapeutic attitude, trauma and body in therapy

Speaker: Dami Charf

Talk & Discussion

In German (with English translation)

How we practice psychotherapy is shaped by our training, our knowledge, our beliefs and the stage of our 

own development. In this talk, I would like to give space to examine the beliefs and knowledge we use as 

therapists. Our clients come with symptoms and because they are suffering - but often, they don't know 

why they are really suffering. As humans, we tend to name things as causes because we think they are the 

cause. Very often, however, the cause lies much deeper and in the very early structures of our past. We 

need to access the implicit, the old patterns of attachment to achieve real change. The body as well as the 

knowledge about developmental trauma can be invaluable here.

Another factor I would like to look at is the role we play as therapists. Is this role still up to date and does it 

make sense for therapeutic work? Especially nowadays, where we see many people suffering from a pro-

found lack of real contact, it can be useful to question therapeutic abstinence and non-contact rule. People 

with early developmental trauma are the clients who have the biggest difficulties with relationships and 

often have the longest and most unsuccessful courses of therapy because many of them cannot be ‘picked up’ 

in a traditional therapeutic setting. 

12.45 pm

Lunch break

02.15 pm

Imago & Trauma - Healing the space between when trauma is the third party in the relationship

Speaker: Antoinette Liechti Maccarone

Talk & Discussion

In English (with German translation)

The studies that led to creating the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale (ACES) showed how traumatic 

events were much more widespread than expected. Therapists like Bessel Van der Kolk, Steven Porges, 

Deb Dana, Gabor Mate, Bruce Perry, just to name a few of them, became pivotal in helping us understand 

the long-lasting impact and the treatment of trauma. They reminded us to ask with utter respect a simple, 

yet profound question “What happened to you?” and to listen to the answers with an empathic and humble 

heart, before even jumping into doing anything to “fix the problem”. There is no problem to be fixed; just 

provide safety and connection. In Imago we work in a relational paradigm where our client is the space 

between. People who have survived trauma come with those stories in their heart, body and mind. Stories 

that are often not shared out of shame and fear. The heartbreaking question “will you still love me if you 

know what happened to me?” is always in the background when doing therapy with a trauma survivor, 

whatever the nature of the trauma. It takes time and patience and sometimes a whole village to heal. 

The work around healing trauma is a long journey of rebuilding trust, in oneself, in others, in life. It’s about 

taking care of a wound so that it becomes a scar, embracing the fact that it will never disappear, and that 

healing is about learning to live with it and transform it into a strength. 

03.45 pm

Coffee break

04.15 pm -

06.15 pm

Three parallel workshops:

Workshop D:

Working with the body in couples therapy

Facilitator: Dami Charf

In German (no English translation)

In this workshop, I would like to give a brief insight into how we can reach deeper levels of consciousness 

through the body and how our clients can not only recognize their attachment patterns, but also experience 

them. To do this, we use the implicit reaction patterns to closeness and distance that show up in the body. 

We will look at how the body shows its experiences as a child and how we learn to make our own often un-

conscious impressions more conscious and incorporate them into our work. We will do exercises together, 

ask questions and experience for ourselves what happens when we involve the body more into our therapeutic 

work.

Workshop E: 

An embrace - Imago & dance therapy

An Invitation to experiment with yourself and others

Facilitator: Kati Loo, MA

In German (no English translation)

"You don't have to be good. You don't have to walk a hundred miles on your knees through the desert and 

repent. You just have to allow that the soft animal of your body loves what it loves ..." - Mary Oliver

Following this poem and the recommendation of the Estonian classic A.H. Tammsaare - to return to the 

beginning when everything is complicated and stuck - the workshop creates a time-space in which we 

focus our attention on ourselves. Through dance, we experience how we can become aware of and express 

what is stored in our bodies. The sensory awareness of the body creates direct access to our feelings. 

We can experience how, with respect and without judgment, we can create an environment in which the 

effects of traumatic experiences are released. The body and our body awareness can help us to rediscover 

our strength and power and share it more easily with others in dance. This makes it easier for us to gain 

confidence and find new perspectives.

As dance method we practice dancing from the space of the heart (© dance therapist Cornelia Freise). 

Cornelia's dances with explanations can also be found on youtube: “dancingoutofthespaceoftheheart”.

In socks or barefoot the feeling and the grounding are more immediate. Dance experience not required!

Workshop F:

Imago & Trauma - from fear & freeze to connect & breathe: 

Creating a space between safe enough

Facilitator: Antoinette Liechti Maccarone 

In English (no German translation)

How can we as relational therapists work in a way that creates safety with our clients, whether we work in 

individual or couples therapy? How can we integrate the best practices in our Imago setting? How can we 

help our clients learn ways to take care of the space between when there has been trauma? How can the 

Imago Dialogue be used, sometimes with adaptations, to become a powerful tool for trauma healing?   

The therapeutic journey is about helping our clients find a balance between the depth of the feelings around 

the trauma and the vitality that is possible when they can embrace and change the narrative of their story 

into their own hero’s journey. Through practical exercises that integrate the Imago Dialogue and other ap-

proaches, we will explore ways of helping our clients create more safety.  

We will use, among others: case studies, explorative dyads, journaling through the hero’s journey, using 

information from the body, using body movements to help regulate emotion, protolanguage or protowriting 

as ways to ventilate emotions or express unspeakable situations or to manage conflict or intimacy, cultivat-

ing being open to any creative activity from their clients to foster aliveness. 

When you see trauma as frozen aliveness, working towards healing it becomes an adventure in warming up 

vitality in a connected and connecting way.

06.00 pm

Honours during champagne reception with finger food buffet 

Afterwards: Dance Music

09.00 am

Spaces of possibility. Imago and the 5 W's: How (in German: Wie), What, When, Why & Where

Speaker: Eva Wessely

Talk & Discussion 

In German (with English translation)

In this lecture I would like to talk about different spaces of possibility. How we recognise them, how we 

shape them, how we can use them in our work with couples and individuals. What do we have to offer as 

Imago experts? What makes us different? Where are we compatible with other approaches? What does our 

dialogue tool box look like, what is it equipped with? How do we use certain tools or processing techniques?

The effectiveness of the dialogue structure and the magic of a sentence stem sometimes brings us into

situations that can and are very challenging for us as facilitators. The activation of a trauma or the 

re-traumatisation of an unintegrated experience is potentially waiting behind every sentence stem as 

well as the opportunity to integrate it. Which attitudes, exercises and techniques can be helpful here? I will 

share my thoughts on this topic as well as examples from practice.

11.00 am

Coffee break

11.30 am

Trauma in dialogue - panel discussion with the speakers of the Imago Days 2025

In English (with German translation)

01.00 pm

Closing with Maya Kollman