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There are many types of therapeutic imagery used to facilitate healing, change attitudes and behaviors, enhance performance and relieve stress-related symptoms.
Guided imagery is usually presented through an audiotape or a person leading an imagery session. Suggestions are made to the listener that might include relaxation scenarios and exercises, or imagery related to some specific health concern such as post-operative healing or boosting the immune system in relation to a particular disease.
Progressive relaxation is a body-centered approach in which the individual scans each part of their body and sees and feels it letting go as they move in their mind from head to toe.
Creative visualization is a combination of imagery exercises, positive ideas or affirmations, and meditations geared toward a specific goal such as a change in a life situation, health condition, or habitual feelings and attitudes.
Receptive visualization is a process of self-discovery. The individual relaxes, turns their attention inward, and waits to see what emerges from their unconscious, often in response to a question they have posed to themselves. Programmed visualization, imagining a process or a result, on the other hand, is an active process in which the individual mentally creates a desired outcome in great detail. Used as a healing tool, the patient is encouraged to learn as much as they can about the anatomy and physiology of their illness and to use these concepts as a basis for the imagery they construct.
Clinical imagery is a method that offers a synthesis of all imagery schools and techniques through studying and experiencing the imaginal mind and by learning how to use that mind in any situation. Imagery techniques have the ability to tap the inner healing resources of the body, mind and spirit. This holistic model incorporates and acknowledges the clients strengths and inherent drive toward wholeness and integrates an understanding of the mind-body connection. It recognizes the healing interaction between practitioner and client and evokes the healing qualities of empathy, faith, trust, hope and safety within the therapeutic relationship.
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Content last modified on Mar 24, 2003
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