Guided Imagery

Guided Imagery top psychotherapists in New York City

Guided Imagery is a therapeutic technique that is used by some clinicians during psychotherapy sessions to promote relaxation and healing. Imagery (thoughts or mental representations with sensory qualities) can help people achieve a variety of health goals, such as alleviating anxiety or depression, overcoming phobias, trauma recovery, reducing habits (overeating, smoking), healing from physical illness, and physical symptom reduction (i.e., high blood pressure, headaches, insomnia, G.I. problems, chronic pain). Guided imagery is a two-part process. The first component involves reaching a state of deep relaxation through breathing and muscle relaxation techniques. During the relaxation phase, the person closes their eyes and focuses on the quiet, relaxed, in and out sensation of breathing. Or, they might focus on releasing the feelings of tension from their muscles, beginning with the toes and working up to the top of the head as one might do in progressive relaxation or body scan. Once complete relaxation is achieved, the second component of the exercise is the imagery, or visualization.  Guided imagery is perfect for patients or clients who feel uncomfortable getting help in a traditional therapist/patient session or in addition to other therapeutic techniques.

Guided imagery was defined by Bresler and Rossman, co-founders of the Academy for Guided Imagery, as a “range of techniques from simple visualization and direct imagery-based suggestion through metaphor and storytelling” (2003). Though guided imagery is currently understood to be mainly an “alternative” or “complementary” therapeutic technique, it has been used in psychotherapy practice for over a century. Guided imagery is a flexible intervention whose efficacy has been indicated through a large body of research over many decades in counseling and allied fields. Clinicians and therapists integrate guided imagery into a variety of other modalities such as EMDR. When woven into an integrative psychotherapy approach, guided imagery helps clients connect with their internal cognitive, affective, and somatic resources. The goal is not to provide new-and-improved images for the client, but to facilitate awareness of the imagery that already exists and guide clients to work with this imagery as needed. Guided imagery can be used to calm the nervous system, learn and rehearse skills, learn to effectively problem solve through visualizing possible outcomes of different alternatives, and increase creativity and imagination. In addition to its use in counseling and psychotherapy, guided imagery has also been used with very positive results in sports training, performance enhancement, rehabilitative medicine, and healthcare.

Clinical observations suggest that an individual visualizing a calm imagined scene reacts as though it were actually occurring; therefore, “induced” images can have a profound effect on behavior. Guided Imagery has also been shown to affect physiological processes and has been used increasingly by healthcare providers in the medical field with impressive results. Medical practitioners such as nurses often use guided imagery with their patients to support patient healing and comfort. This is particularly true with Cancer patients but also with patients who have other medical concerns such as anxiety before surgery. Studies have shown that individuals who participated in Guided Imagery experienced higher numbers of activated T-cells which led to improved immune responses. Guided Imagery is one of many tools that an individual may use as part of a regular self-care practice.

The usefulness of guided imagery techniques have been shown to be effective in helping individuals learn or modify behaviors such as:

• Learning to relax
• Changing or controlling negative emotions in response to a particular situation
• Preparation for future changes (divorce, moving, job changes)
• Habit control and eliminating or reducing undesirable behaviors (smoking, obesity)
• Increased pain management
• Coping with difficult situations (relatives, family events, a difficult boss)
• Learning new and desirable behaviors (assertiveness training)
• Increasing motivation (work, homework)
• Learning to manage stressful or anxiety-producing situations (public speaking/presentations) by mentally rehearsing the needed behavior(s)

Guided imagery techniques have been found to be effective with a variety of concerns such as:

• Phobias (including agoraphobia, panic disorders, social phobia, and specific phobias )
• Depression
• Generalized anxiety disorders (GAD)
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Sexual concerns
• Habit disorders
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Behavior disorders in children and adolescents
• Medical conditions
• Acute and chronic pain (and other physical disorders)

Guided imagery has also contributed to the achievement of skills and overcoming anxiety in normal life situations that include learning or improving skills, performance enhancement, test taking, and public speaking. In addition, visualization and imagery, along with hypnotherapy, EMDR and behavioral techniques, have been applied to the fields of business, industry, child rearing, education, behavioral medicine, and sports. In my Manhattan psychotherapy practice, I integrate guided imagery into psychotherapy and EMDR sessions with patients as needed.