GUIDED IMAGERY

What is Guided Imagery?

Guided Imagery is a very powerful, highly effective, safe, non-invasive, healing tool, which anyone can use.  It honors the mind body spirit connection and works on all levels including physical, emotional, and spiritual.  The power of it comes from the ability to bypass the thinking brain and gain direct access to the subconscious, where all answers lie.

Guided Imagery has been around for centuries and has been known by many different names such as visualization, guided meditation, interactive guided imagery, etc.  Both Freud and Jung used types of imagery in their psychotherapy work, but the belief in the power of imagination and visualization is ancient and was used by Shamans, in both Eastern and Tibetan Medicine, and even ancient Greeks, including Aristotle and Hippocrates.

Today, guided imagery is being embraced as a powerful alternative healing method.  Many major universities, hospitals and wellness centers are combining imagery with traditional healing practices.  When guided imagery was introduced at Washington Hospital Center, the Assistant Vice President was quoted as saying “Of all the accomplishments that our hospital saw last year, the guided imagery program was certainly our most valuable.” 

Guided imagery is the conscious use of the imagination to create positive images in order to bring about healthful changes in both the body and the mind. Creating mental images is nothing new for most people. Everyone has daydreams, perhaps of a set of new clothes or of winning the lottery. Guided imagery takes this natural process a step further.

By working with a trained practitioner, or using special audio recordings, you can learn to communicate more effectively with your unconscious mind, gain valuable information or request that your body function in an optimal and healthy way.

There are basically two types of guided imagery.  Interactive self discovery, which allows us to literally go within the subconscious to gain the information necessary to resolve an issue, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual.  When working with a therapist, this type of imagery is interactive in that we can actually go within and have a conversation with the subconscious. This could mean having a conversation with a cancerous tumour to find out why it is there and what is required to begin the healing process.  Or perhaps confronting a phobia and determining it’s origin in order to neutralize the fear.

The second type of imagery is about providing the mind and body with positive thoughts and images.  Basically programming or reprogramming the mind and body to achieve the desired results.  This could be whatever you want it to be, however, a few examples could be to quit smoking, manifesting the perfect job, change negative thought patterns to positive. Again the possibilities are unlimited.   

The greatest power of guided imagery comes when you can combine both types of imagery.  Go within to find the answers then use the information to reprogram the mind and the body to achieve the desired results. 

Some Benefits of Guided Imagery

A Typical Guided Imagery Session

 In a typical one on one session, after getting some background information from the client, the Therapist then talks the client into a relaxed state using imagination and visualization while incorporating all the senses.  Once in this relaxed alpha state, the Therapist will guide the client to see a specific situation or circumstance in his or her mind, depending on what the client’s issues are.  The client’s imagination allows the story to unfold. 

Throughout the session the Therapist is continually guiding and questioning the client in order to fine tune the information the subconscious is leading us to.  There are many different scenes or scenarios that can be used based on the individual’s needs but there is always a dialogue between myself and the client’s subconscious, and the client is fully aware of all that is being discussed and will remember the entire experience.    

After the imagery is complete, the client and therapist together discuss and decipher the information received, and together, decide what’s next.  How many sessions a client needs is totally dependant on the individual client and their issue(s).  Some clients may need only one interactive session followed up by a personally designed imagery recording to reinforce the positive images required to achieve their desired outcome.  However, others could require multiple weekly sessions.  It truly depends on the individual and how their sessions unfold.   

Why Guided Imagery so Effective

The mind body connection combined with the ability to work directly with the subconscious is really the underlying factor as to how guided imagery can be so effective and successful.

 The mind is incredibly powerful and the body is merely an obedient servant.  What the mind directs the body to do, it will faithfully oblige.  The body takes everything literally.  It does not have the ability to reason, to discern right from wrong, truth from fear, it listens to these messages sent to it as pure fact and acts on them accordingly based on past programming that is buried deep in the unconscious mind.  Whether we consciously believe these truths or not, there is a strong unconscious connection, and the body does listen and act.  For example if you consciously or subconsciously believe a piece of chocolate cake, when eaten, will go directly to your hips, then it will do exactly that.  If you believe your hair will fall out with chemotherapy, then it will.  The body cannot help but do what the mind directs it to do.  

 Imagine for a moment that you are biting into the sourest lemon ever.  Now wait and see what happens with your mouth.  Most people will salivate.  The mere thought of the action created a physical reaction in the body.  In the past at some point in time you experienced this physical reaction and your mind has stored this information deep in your subconscious.  Otherwise, known as a classic conditioned response, similar to Pavlov’s famous experiment with the dog and the bell.

Every experience we have ever had, every word we have ever heard, every thought we have had, have all been stored in our subconscious.  It doesn’t even matter if we are consciously aware of the messages entering our brains.  We can be awake, asleep, listening attentively, or daydreaming about something else while these messages are entering our brains and being imprinted there for future reference.      

Guided imagery can be used change some of the negative imprinting and basically reprogram the mind, thus, literally tricking the body into doing what we want it to do.