How Does Imagery and Imagination Enhance Psychotherapy?

I have been using imagery and imagination in therapy with my clients for many years (see my article: Using the Imagination as a Powerful Tool For Change).

Imagery and Imagination in Psychotherapy

The Imaginal Realm: Working With Visual Mental Imagery

I recently attended an advanced AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) seminar called "Imaginal Realm: Working With Visual Mental Imagery in AEDP" which was a deep dive into using imagery and imagination (see my article: What is AEDP?).

When I refer to "imagery", I'm not only referring to visual imagery. Aside from visual imagery, many people get non-visual imagery in sessions. 

For instance, some clients get mental representations through sound (hearing music in their mind), scents that can trigger old memories, kinesthetic experiences (feeling movement), tactile experiences, and an embodied or felt sense of conceptual/verbal imagery such as thinking of concepts or having an internal dialog.

During therapy sessions, I sometimes get visual images in my imagination or a song comes to mind. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate these experiences as messages from my unconscious mind because they often tell me what is going on for the client or what is going on between the client and me.

It's not unusual for me to have an image, song or a word in mind and then a few seconds later the client mentions the same image, song or word (see my articles: Synchronicities - Part 1 and Part 2).

Over time, I have learned that these experiences occur when I feel especially attuned to the client. Other therapists, especially therapists who are experiential therapists like me, have told me that they have similar experiences in therapy (see my article: The Psychotherapy Session: A Unique Intersubjective Experience).

The Use of Metaphors in Psychotherapy

Over the years, I have heard clients use many metaphors unprompted by me, including: 

• "It's like searching for the Holy Grail."
• "I'm no longer jumping into the vortex of other people's drama."
• "I feel like I'm trapped in a cage."
• "I'm no longer putting up walls."
• "I walked on eggshells with my ex."
• "I'm drowning in paperwork."
• "I keep hitting my head against a wall."
• "He swept me off my feet."
• "A weight has been lifted off my shoulders."

Metaphors are beneficial in therapy because they can:

• Enhance clients' communication by allowing them to express feelings they might otherwise have a hard time articulating

• Deepen insights that can lead to a reframing of a problem, a relationship or an idea

• Bypass rational defenses offering a way to talk about sensitive subjects and break rigid and unhealthy thought patterns

• Strengthen the therapeutic alliance between client and therapist

How Imagery and Imagination Enhance Psychotherapy

Imagery and imagination can enhance therapy by engaging the emotional brain. This allows clients to access and process unconscious emotions.

It also helps clients to make behavioral changes through mental rehearsal.

Imagery and Imagination in Psychotherapy

An example of how to use mental rehearsal is a client who wants to become more confident to give presentations at work. This client can vividly imagine their "Future Self", who can exist at any time in the future. They can imagine a self who has all the confidence, qualities and skills they would like to have (see my article: Experiencing Your Future Self).

Using imagination in this way can strengthen neural pathways and prepare the brain for success.

Clients can also see and feel themselves walking into the presentation room feeling prepared and confident, speaking with passion and receiving applause after the presentation. They might even imagine their boss coming over and praising the presentation. 

AEDP Portrayals

One of the main components in AEDP is doing "portrayals" in therapy sessions.

AEDP portrayals are active experiential and imaginative enactments in the therapy session.

To set up doing a portrayal an AEDP therapist prepares the client prior to doing the portrayal by:

• Establishing Safety and a Therapeutic Alliance: The therapist establishes an attuned connection with the client to ensure the client feels safe and to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed.

• Identifying the Core Material: In collaboration with the client, the therapist identifies a memory or a part of the client's self that still has an emotional charge.

• Inviting Immersion (The Setup): The therapist invites the client to slow down, close their eyes and visualize the scene using as many sensory details as possible (sight, sound, body sensations and so on).

• Role Playing (Doing the Portrayal): The therapist guides the client to talk to the imagined person or part of themself by expressing vulnerable or assertive feelings they couldn't express in the past. This might involve imagining talking to a frightened younger part of themself, talking to a parent in a memory from the past, confronting someone who abused them and so on.

There are different types of AEDP portrayals including:

• Reparative Portrayals: An example might be a client imagining a new outcome to a painful scene in their life. In this type of portrayal the client can offer themself what might have been needed and lacking in real life to repair emotional damage.

• Internal Parts Work (intra-relational portrayals): Having a dialog with different aspects of themself to resolve internal conflict (similar to Parts Work Therapy/IFS).

Imagery and Imagination: Internal Parts of Self

• Relational Attachment Portrayals: Reenacting relationships to process emotions to attachment figures (e.g., parents, siblings, a ex-lover, etc). 

• Feared Portrayals: Actively engaging with a threatening figure from real life or from a dream to process the emotional impact, reduce shame and anxiety, and to feel empowered.

• Longed-For Portrayals: The client imagines receiving the love, emotional support or validation they desired but never received from a significant person in their life.

• Moment-to-Moment Tracking: Moment-to-moment tracking is an essential part of AEDP whether the interaction involves a portrayal or a conversation between the client  and the therapist in session. This involves the therapist staying closely attuned to the client's facial expressions, movements, emotions and defenses. The therapist also monitors her own mental, emotional, imaginal and bodily sensations.

• Metaprocessing After a Portrayal: The client and therapist process the experience together afterward to help the client to integrate the experience by building a bridge between the client's right brain and left brain. Among other things, the therapist explores with the client what it was like to do the portrayal and, specifically, what it was like for the client to do the portrayal with the therapist. The focus is on what might have changed for the client or what was transformative about the experience. Processing helps the client to hold onto and integrate positive experiences (see my article: How Are Emotions Processed in AEDP?).

Using Imagery and Imagination on Your Own

Aside from the use of imagery and imagination in therapy, athletes  also use mental rehearsal, including visualization, to imagine a successful performance, including overcoming potential obstacles they might encounter. This can help them to build confidence, improve focus and enhance performance.

You can also use your imagination in creative ways on your own to have fun and, if you like, achieve goals.  There are endless ways to use your imagination on your own including:

• Using Creative Visualization For a Hoped-For Outcome: This can involve imagining a hoped-for outcome in your personal life, career or in any other part of your life.

Imagery and Imagination: Hoped-For Outcome

• Imagining "What If" Problem Solving: When you encounter an obstacle, including an internal obstacle, you can imagine "What if there were no limits?" and visualize different solutions, including solutions that might seem unattainable at first but might spark a new perspective.

• Using the "Lightstream" Technique: If you're dealing with stress, you can imagine a soothing, healing light flowing through your body to alleviate stress or physical discomfort.

Future Articles

Using imagery and imagination is one of my favorite topics, so I'll write more about it in future articles.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I have over 25 years of experience helping individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles:

The Mind-Body Connection as a Window Into the Unconscious Mind

Using the Mind-Body Connection to Create the World You Want 

Dreams and Embodied Imagination 

Working With Your Dreams to Develop Your Creative Imagination 

What Are Imaginal Interweaves?  

Books: Imagination and Medicine

How Visualization Can Transform Your Life

In my psychotherapy private practice in New York City I help clients to use their imagination and visualizations to achieve transformation in their life (see my article: Using Your Imagination).

Visualization and Transformation

What is Visualization?

Visualization is the process of creating vivid mental images or representations. 

Visualization can be used to understand complex information. It can also be used to mentally rehearse desired outcomes for personal growth, therapy or performance (see my article: Using the Mind-Body Connection to Create a Vision of What You Want).

Visualization uses the imagination to form pictures in your mind. This often involves using all your senses to simulate experiences and goals. This can improve focus, motivation and the development of new skills.

How is Visualization Used in Psychotherapy and Personal Development?

Here are some examples of how visualization can be used in psychotherapy and personal development:

• Mental Rehearsal: Imagining yourself performing a task. This builds neural pathways which makes it easier to do in real life.

• Goal Setting: Creating a clear mental picture of a desired future outcome to direct your unconscious mind and increase your motivation (see my article: Making the Unconscious Conscious).

• Sensory Engagement: Using sight, sound, touch and smell to enhance the power of your imagery and make it more realistic.

What Are the Key Aspects of Visualization?

• Mental Imagery: Visualization involves seeing in your mind's eye without actual visual input.

Visualization and Transformation

• Brain Activation: Visualization activates similar brain areas as actual seeing and doing, which makes it a powerful training tool.

• Technique: Visualization can involve the process (the steps it takes to achieve your goal) or the outcome you desire (the end result).

How I Learned to Use Visualization

When I first tried using visualization as part of a women's personal development group more than 25 years go, I had a hard time accessing visual images.  The other women around me were getting vivid imagery when they closed their eyes to visualize and I was getting nothing.

Then I discovered the book, Creative Visualization, by Shakti Gawain, and I began to practice regularly on my own in addition to group practice. And, with a lot of practice, I began to visualize simple things and, over time, my visualizations became more complex and vivid.

At the time, I had an administrative job near the East River in Manhattan and I would walk over to the river on my lunch hour and practice projecting images with my eyes open onto the flowing river.  This took time to develop, but it was fun and very satisfying to be able to imagine and see these images in the water.

Sometimes when my women's group got together, we would practice visualizations together as a way to develop intuition. Each women would take turns imaging an image and, over time, many of us could sense what the visualizer was imagining.  This made us realize that intuition, like visualization, can be developed with practice.

What Are Some Helpful Visualization Tools?

When I was learning to visualize, I didn't have access to the wonderful tools that exist now to help with visualizations.

Here are some tools you might find helpful:

• Vision Boards (also called Visualization Boards): Vision boards are visual representations of your goals, intentions and desires. Vision boards are usually poster size boards. They are often made up of collage images that serve to motivate and inspire you towards your goals and desires. You can make your vision board as simple or elaborate as you want.

Visualization and Transformation

• Visualization Music: Visualization music is designed to facilitate visualization and meditative processes.  The purpose of this music is to help you focus on your visualizations. You can find visualization music online.

• Guided Imagery: You can practice your visualizations using guided imagery recordings or books.  A book I found helpful many years ago, which is still in print, is Mother Wit by Diane Mariechild.

• Visualizations of Your Future Self: The concept of a future self is used in hypnotherapy, EMDR Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Parts Work Therapy (IFS and Ego States Therapy), AEDP and in other types of Experiential therapies. Your future self is how you want to be in the future as someone who has accomplished your goals, intentions and desires (see my article: Experiencing Your Future Self: The Self You Want to Become).

Conclusion

There are many ways to use visualizations to achieve your desires.

Visualization and Transformation

As I mentioned earlier, initially, I had a problem seeing anything at all when I closed my eyes more than 25 years ago, but with practice and persistence, I learned to create vivid images.

Using visualizations for transformation can be a fun and powerful way to transform your life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Using the Mind-Body Connection to Create a Vision of What You Want

We've all heard about how important it is to set goals in order to have the life that you want.  But for many people goal setting remains a mystery.  They're not sure where to start.  So, in this article, I'm focusing on the first stage of goal setting, which is creating a vision of what you want.

Using the Mind-Body Connection to Create a Vision of What You Want

Goal Setting:  Creating a Vision of What You Want

In order to set goals for yourself, you need to know what you want.  Although this sounds logical, for many people, this is a big stumbling block because they don't know what they want.

In many ways, the initial stage of goal setting, creating a vision, can be the most fun stage.  

By relaxing and using your imagination, you can begin to create a vision for yourself that will help you to realize what you want.

Achieving Your Goals: Using the Mind-Body Connection to Create a Vision of What You Want

During the early 1980s, I read a book by Shakti Gawain called Creative Visualization: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Life.

In this book, Ms. Gawain outlines how you can use, among other things, mental imagery to free up your imagination so you can create visualizations as the starting point of your goal setting process.  I would recommend this book as a start if you're having a problem at the initial stage of goal setting.

I recommend, at this stage, that people just allow themselves the freedom to visualize whatever their imagination comes up with without censoring themselves.

Allow yourself to dream and play with ideas.  Later on, you can get more specific.  But at this stage it's important to allow yourself to "play" with the images that come up without judging them.

Goal Setting:  Concretizing the Images and Using Your Vision as a Road Map to Achieve Your Goals

The next stage would be to write down the images or ideas that come to you.

It's important to capture your images and ideas and to concretize them in some way.  Whether this means writing down a list or, if you want to take more time and be creative, drawing or making collages that are symbolic of what you want.

Achieving Your Goals: Creating a Road Map

Symbols can be powerful representations that help to stimulate your imagination even more and also help you to develop other ideas.

Whichever way you choose to concretize what comes up in your imagination, capturing it in a concrete way, on the most basic level, helps you to remember it rather than allowing it to slip away like a puff of smoke.  It also helps to reinforce whatever comes up and helps you to create a road map to follow to achieve your goals.

Goal Setting: Clinical Hypnosis and Somatic Experiencing

For many people, who try to use their imagination to create a vision of what they want, nothing comes. No matter how hard they try, their minds remain blank and all they see when they close their eyes is, well, nothing.

Initially, when I first tried to do visualizations many years ago, I also got nothing.  I had friends who had wonderful, very detailed technicolor visualizations.  I was happy for them, but I also wished that I could do more than draw a blank when I closed my eyes.

Over time, I practiced visualizing and I got much better at it (see my article:  Wellness: Learning to Visualize in Meditation for helpful tips on improving your visualization skills).

For people who really feel stuck, clinical hypnosis (also known as hypnotherapy), as conducted by a licensed mental health professional who is a hypnotherapist, can help you to relax and open up to that creative part of yourself that you might not have even realized was part of you.

People have many preconceived ideas about clinical hypnosis, based on seeing stage hypnosis by a lay hypnotist, which is a distortion of what clinical hypnosis really is.

Using the Mind-Body Connection to Create a Vision of What You Want

Somatic Experiencing is a mind-body oriented therapy that can allow you, among other things, to tap into your creative imagination (see my article:  Mind-Body Psychotherapy: The Body Offers a Window Into the Unconscious Mind to understand Somatic Experiencing).

When clinical hypnosis and Somatic Experiencing are used together, they can become powerful tools for transformation.

Working with a licensed therapist who is trained in hypnotherapy and Somatic Experiencing can help to free your imagination so that you can create a vision of your goals so you can realize your goals.

Getting Help in Therapy
Since I began using Somatic Experiencing and clinical hypnosis with my clients in my psychotherapy private practice several years ago, I have found, in many cases, that these mind-body oriented techniques are often more powerful than regular talk therapy for people who feel stuck.

Rather than struggling on your own, you can overcome whatever is blocking you from creating what you want in your life by working with a therapist who is trained in clinical hypnosis and Somatic Experiencing.

About Me
I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

I have helped many people to create and achieve their goals so they can live a more fulfilling life.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Hypnosis and Creative Visualization for Stress Management

As long as we're alive we will experience stress. We cannot eliminate stress from our lives, nor would we want to. A healthy level of stress gets us through the day and helps us to achieve our goals. 

Hypnosis and Creative Visualization for Stress Management

What causes problems for people is not stress itself. Rather, it's our negative reactions to stress, our distress, that often cause emotional and physical problems. 

A combination of clinical hypnosis and creative visualization often help to allow us to relax and calm our minds and bodies. As part of my work with psychotherapy clients, I usually teach them to use creative visualization and self hypnosis to feel more relaxed and refreshed.

Hypnosis and Creative Visualization
As I've mentioned in a previous blog post, all hypnosis is really self hypnosis. 

When I say this I mean that, even when a hypnotherapist is guiding you through the hypnotic process, you're own body and mind are doing the hypnotic work--not the hypnotherapist. 

With regular practice, self hypnosis is a skill that most people can develop. Some people go into the hypnotic state more easily than others. But my experience has been that most people can enter the hypnotic state, once they learn how. 

Hypnosis is usually very relaxing and refreshing, There's nothing mysterious or magical about the hypnotic state. In fact, we all enter into various levels of the hypnotic state or trance everyday when we day dream.

Creative visualization is also a skill that most people can learn, even people who insist that they don't see anything when they close their eyes and try to visualize. 

Often, there are misunderstandings about what is meant by visualizing. Some people think that if they're not seeing strong images, they're not visualizing. So, once again, if you're able to have day dreams and night dreams, which most people do, more than likely, you'll be able to develop this skill with practice.

Creative visualization can be used not only to relax. It can be used to help improve your mood, to achieve a goal, to improve your health, and it has many other benefits. For instance, athletes use creative imagery all the time to improve their athletic skills.

An Example of Creative Visualization
As an example, if you've ever watched an Olympic diving competition, you might have noticed that divers usually stand on the edge of the diving board for a few seconds with their eyes closed before they do their dives. 

During that time, they're doing a mental rehearsal of their dives, visualizing and proactively experiencing in their bodies how they want to execute the dive before they actually do it. They've been trained by their coaches that this mental rehearsal substantially improves the possibility of executing a flawless dive. Other professional athletes, including tennis players, baseball players and others also know the value of using creative visualization as part of their training to improve their game.

Combination of Clinical Hypnosis and Creative Visualization Can Be Empowering
The combination of clinical hypnosis and creative visualization can be very empowering. When you're in a hypnotic state, you are engaing a deeper part of yourself, your unconscious mind. Therapeutic work which is done on the unconscious level tends to be more powerful as compared to work done strictly on the conscious or cognitive level where you're only working on the surface.

Visualizing a Relaxing Place
One of the exercises I usually teach clients is using self hypnosis and creative visualization to see and experience themselves in a relaxing place. Once they've learned self hypnosis, they choose a place, either a real place that they know or an imagined place, to experience in the hypnotic state, bringing in as many senses as they can. The sensory experience is key to helping to bring about relaxation. Sensory experiences include noticing what you see, hear, feel, sense, smell, and taste on this imaginary level.



Even if you don't think you don't know how to enter into a self hypnotic state, you can still benefit from taking a few minutes to imagine yourself in a relaxing place. Think of it as entering into a pleasant day dream or reverie and don't get hung up on whether you are or aren't in a hypnotic state. When you choose a relaxing place to day dream about, it should be a place that is unambiguously pleasant. 

So, for instance, if you're thinking about a beach that you love, but you had a big argument with your boyfriend or girlfriend there and that's the image and feeling that predominate for you, don't use that place because it's not going to be relaxing.

Choose a place to practice the relaxing place experience where you can have some quiet time to yourself. Also, make sure that you're in a place where it's safe to close your eyes and relax. So, you would never do this while driving, operating machinery or anywhere where you need to be alert to your surroundings.

When you've found the appropriate time, place to practice, and the image of a relaxing place that's right for you, close your eyes and imagine this place, making your senses as vivid as possible. 

For most people, visualization is their strongest sense. But for some people their imaginary sense of sound, smell, taste or sensation might be more dominant. 

As best as you can, start to notice how relaxing this place is. Often, after just a few minutes, you'll notice that your body starts to relax. This is because of the mind-body connection. Our minds affect our bodies and our bodies affect our minds. So, if you visualize a relaxing place, your mind sends a signal to your body to relax.

For most people who are interested in developing their abilities in self hypnosis and creative visualization, practice and patience are key to improving these skills. Just like any other skill that you develop, it takes time and some effort. But the benefit you derive for managing your reactions to stress can be very rewarding.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist. 

I provide psychotherapy services to individuals and couples, including dynamic talk therapy,clinical hypnosis, EMDR, and Somatic Experiencing. 

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.