Your source for the latest news about Guided Imagery, Imagery International, workshops, articles and products from our members.
Juliet Rohde-Brown
Ode to Meredith Echoes of the Stillpoint
This is a song and melody Juliet Rohde_Brown, president of Imagery International, wrote when Meredith Young-Sowers asked her to sing for Stillpoint. Shantha Sri was kind enough to play some background music. Juliet offers this song for a New Year’s gift.
We thank her for her outstanding leadership and open heart.
Wishing you a prosperous, happy and healthy new year.
Imagery International
We chose Bev Hollander for the 2010 Imagery Person of the Year because she has been an integral part of our Imagery International organization and our hearts since 2007, having served as Board Member, President, and Editor
Bev Hollander IPY 2010
of II’s Journal ImagiNews. Under our fun-loving trail blazer’s forward thinking cutting-edge intuition and editorship, ImagiNews has become the glue that holds our international community together. In honoring Bev, who introduced the use of a theme for each publication, the 19 selected themes from her published issues are used randomly in the expression of II’s deepest gratitude for all that she has given our community in so many ways. It is with great respect that we honor Bev with the esteemed Imagery Person of the Year award. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor, Bev!
Bev, coming on the Board of Imagery International while also starting an Editorship of ImagiNews created “New Beginnings” for you. To jump right in with “Courage” allowed you to overcome the initial overwhelm of your first journal issue. Right from the beginning, your determined “Resolution” and “Intention” that everything done for ImagiNews would be for the greater good and “Growth” of our Imagery International “Community” became evident.
Bev Hollander, Judith Ewing r. reads tribute
The “Clarity” of your focused “Intuition” to provide themes around which articles can be written still brings “Illumination” to the ways Imagery can be used in “Healing.” The “Passion” within your “Compassion” has guided the alignment of our authors’ messages of “Hope” and “Joy” in sharing transformational modalities and practices in working with Imagery. This in turn has opened “Portals” of “Opportunity” for us as healthcare practitioners to take on the responsibility to reach even greater depths of awareness and understanding of Imagery in order to make important “Transitions” to support and embrace our clients.
Another delightful feature of ImagiNews initiated by your “Kindness” is the invitation to artists to showcase their original art on the cover. This provides international exposure for them, and it graces our cover with beautiful Images. Then, there is “Serendipity”—finding something valuable and pleasurable when looking for something else. In the beginning, Imagery International was looking for a Board Member, a President, and an Editor. What we found was a most valuable and pleasurable “you” who has taught us on many levels the importance of Transforming to the fullness of compassion, wisdom, and love.
Befriending Anger with Meditation and Guided Imagery
by Leslie, Davenport, MFT
Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.
–Aristotle
Leslie Davenport, MFT
Anger has been getting a bad rap for centuries. Medieval Christianity decreed anger as one of the seven deadly sins. Buddha teaches that anger side-tracks enlightenment and is rooted in illusion. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna regards anger as a sign of ignorance that leads to perpetual bondage. And the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, a source of Judaic law, advises, “Anger is a very evil trait and it should be avoided at all costs. You should train yourself not be become angry even if you have a good reason to be angry.” Even current medical research conducted through the American Heart Association lists its negative health consequences, including anger as a trigger for heart attacks. Click to read more.
Dr. Mark Lawrence, noted psychiatrist died on July 22, 2011.
Dr. Mark Lawrence
In 1984, he co-founded the Center for Healing and Imagery and taught workshops on using Imagery in therapy. Dr. Lawrence was a member of Imagery International (II) and lived in McLean, VA. He was a gifted clinician and teacher who created a powerful model that, in his words, “integrates the dynamic concepts and techniques of state-dependent learning, dissociation, hypnosis, imagery, and gestalt therapy.”
He kept up with the latest developments in neuroscience and had a brilliant and curious mind. He trained hundreds of therapists and was sought after as a consultant and a therapist.
A graduate of his program and II member, Gary Goodwin, had this to say: “Dr. Lawrence was a wonderful person and a masterful Imagery teacher. He was much beloved for his gentle, engaged, and generous manner. His unexpected passing has left a hole in the hearts of those who knew him.”
We at II are saddened at this great loss to our Imagery community and the larger community of the world.
The Center of Healing and Imagery will continue with its wide list of Imagery training. Also, Dr. Lawrence had been co-authoring a book on ego states and Imagery with his daughter and it will be published in the near future.
We are delighted to welcome our new Treasurer extraordinaire – Janet Barr, CLFC, CLU, CDFA, MS. Janet is a financial adviser located in Santa Barbara, California. Her skills are much needed as it is clear it is time to evaluate which new programs can be funded. We have some projects aimed at public and professional education and interest in making our podcasts available to a wider audience through websites like iTunes and Podcast Alley.
Janet was introduced to us for the first time at the annual meeting during the 2011 Imagery
Janet Barr reports
conference. She is pictured here reporting on our healthy balance. She has been busy overhauling our way of doing business and offered software to facilitate collaboration between officers on projects. Wow is she energetic and full of ideas to move us forward in a cost effective fashion.
Janet’s business name is Collaborative Financial Solutions, LLC. Her address is 206 E. Victoria Street, Santa Barbara, California. For more information visit her website here.
______________________________________
Specialties include:
Wealth management, socially responsible and green alternative energy investing, estate planning, divorce settlement planning and financial life planning.
It’s a good time to call 805-965-0101 when you are planning ahead or dealing with:
• Job Change – 401(k) Advice, Investment Selection, Benefits Analysis, Rollover
• Selling a home, business, and other assets in the most tax efficient manner
• Minimizing taxes, Tax Deferral and Tax Free investments
• Divorce or Contemplating divorce Getting Divorced Checklist
• Wanting a new relationship with your finances Starting Out Checklist
• Life happens/Protecting against serious loss: Disability, Life, and Long-Term Care, etc.
• Inheritance/Sudden Wealth/Lottery
• Retirement or nearing retirement
• Nearing Retirement Checklist
• Estate Planning Checklist
Cancer Imagery Up-Regulates Immune Function After All by Belleruth Naparstek, Monday, June 27, 2011
Belleruth Naparstek
Hello again.
I’ve been looking at the research and pondering how far we’ve come from those early days when we were first learning about guided imagery as a possible, bona fide addition to the cancer treatment toolkit. Back in the 80’s when guided imagery was first getting promoted by Bernie Siegel, Stephanie & Carl Simonton, Jeanne Achterberg and Frank Lawlis, there was a lot of excitement about its potential. Early pilot studies showed a lot of promise (early studies often do – perhaps because of the excitement the investigators feel about their intervention), and there was a lot of talk about how ‘visualization’ could wipe out cancer cells. People were encouraged to imagine Pac-Men, a popular video game at the time, eating up cancer cells, before, during and after chemotherapy.
In those days, the imagery was strictly visual – the other senses were not called into play – and that made it hard for the half of the population that’s not especially well wired for visual memory or fantasy. We’ve since learned that all the senses need to be brought to bear, and that perhaps the most potent and impactful sense is the kinesthetic one – imagining the feel of things inside the body. We also figured out that for most people, when the imagery has a strong emotional flavor to it, it gets potentiated to a greater extent and has more impact. The research at that time showed that the proponents of visualization were over-promising. These early visualizations helped cancer patients with motivation, coping, anxiety and the side effects of chemotherapy and other medical procedures but didn’t make a dent on the progress of the cancer itself. Investigators reluctantly backed off from their ambitious early claims and stuck with side-effects and coping benefits.
A Woman’s Retreat Tepozatlan, Mexico, October 21-23
Glenda Cedarleaf
Come immerse yourself in a women’s circle and into your creative imagination through Guided Imagery, Expressive Arts, Movement, Healing Ritual and FUN !!!
You will open to inner guidance and release emotional blocks for greater clarity and commitment
This retreat will be facilitated by Glenda Cedarleaf MSW LICSW and includes a very special experiential with Mary Lynn Patton Ed.D Clinical Psychologist
Glenda Cedarleaf is a Guided Imagery practitioner and Clinical Hypnotherapist - who follows her calling to be a muse and midwife for deepening the healing process through creative exploration.
She has facilitated women’s retreats since 1995. She has a psychotherapy and guided imagery practice in Minnetonka Minnesota.
Tepoztlan is in the mountains and is known for being the birthplace of the mighty Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. It is home to artists and lovers of Native Mexican culture. This town is filled with beautiful loving and authentic people who have maintained the best of their native culture. You will love the weekend market filled with the colorful and flavorful foods and crafts of the people of this lovely village.
Glenda writes and records guided imagery journeys. Her audios “Your Healing Journey” and “Healing Surgery” are now being provided to patients in the Cardiac Catheter Lab, Emergency Room, Joint Center and Surgical Department.
For more information on the retreat and how to sign up click here.
To learn more about Glenda’s work visit her website http://www.guidedimagerycd.com/
What are the side effects of listening to a Guided Imagery recording?
The following is an important discussion about one patient who listened to “Panic Attack”. Belleruth Naparstek is probably the leading creator, producer and seller of Guided Imagery recordings. Her “Prepare for Surgery” has been clinically tested and found effective in reducing the patient’s loss of blood and speeding the course of healing. So what do we learn about this questioners experience with a client?
Is Guided Imagery Dangerous for Someone Who Dissociates?
Question:
Are the guided visualizations safe for persons with a history of traumatic dissociation and a traumatic brain injury? I introduced a client to the Panic Attack tape and she felt “funny” and dissociated at the end of the session. We did some grounding exercises to return her into her body, and she was fine, but she is questioning the safety of follow-up work with these tapes. Thanks for any feedback you can offer!
Answer:
Great question – a lot of therapists who don’t work regularly with hypnosis or imagery ask it. Since guided imagery is a form of conscious, purposeful dissociation, it can actually be used to help train a client like this to gain control over her dissociative process. By practicing with it, she can get a better idea of what it’s like to be ‘home’ inside her body, and what it’s like to go AWOL and be someplace else in her mind. By opting to use imagery on a regular basis, starting out with you keeping her company, she can become skillful at realizing when she’s floated out, and can then pull herself back into her body quickly – by doing those grounding exercises you gave her, for instance.
As you know, it’s much safer for her to be “home” in her body – it’s the ungrounded, floaty, dissociated people who get pegged as prey by predators looking for their next mugging or sexual assault victim. In that disembodied state, they broadcast with their body language and that spacey look in their eyes, just how easy it would be to figuratively or literally knock them over. Similarly, they have more auto accidents and accidental injuries while ironing, using an oven or slicing things with a knife. But this means she should continue to practice this with you in the office, where she can safely learn to get a handle on this – it won’t be long before she’ll be able to do it on her own and she’ll be far safer and happier for it.
She should be able to tell you when she feels in control. As I mention in Invisible Heroes, 2 psychologists from Georgia State, Drs. Joen Fagan and Erma Shephard, way back in the 1980’s, amply demonstrated the power of dissociative techniques, such as hypnosis and guided imagery, for helping people who dissociate, even people with the most extreme diagnoses, such as what they used to call at that time Multiple Personality Disorder – now Dissociative Identity Disorder. I hope this helps.
All best,
Belleruth
To see the article on Belleruth’s website click here.
Dear Community,
We are blogging for mental health today at Imagery International. Our integrative and multidisciplinary framework incorporates an appreciation of how powerful our imagination is in healing.
As educators and practitioners we advocate for less stigma around seeking assistance for mental health issues and more accessibility to services that can facilitate a reduction of stress and suffering. When people are having a difficult time dealing with the stresses of life, we feel strongly about being able to foster both acceptance and change by acknowledging the unique imagery that arises in presenting problems.
When appropriate, we can sometimes encourage an active engagement with these images and serve to facilitate in our clients a mindful attentiveness to what is newly emerging. Sometimes this can involve stepping into an imagined quality and role playing with speech and behavior. Other times, one can create a safe and peaceful place from which to then explore more challenging emotional issues. The safe space can be purely imaginary or it can blend an actual place with embellishments of the imagination. One can have an imaginary guide, such as a spiritual mentor, who assists along the way.
Dream material and literature can be fodder for interacting with images and symbols that emerge as significant in some way in the present moment. Using the imagination through engaging in art, music, dance, and writing can assist in moving through difficult life concerns. Taking an actual object in one’s hand and exploring the texture, shape, scent, and so forth can also be beneficial, particularly when the object is gathered from the natural environment. Indeed, images in nature are profoundly moving and awakening when we surrender to noticing their expression. Staying present to what one is experiencing in one’s body in the present moment and perhaps bringing voice to an image around a medical issue can be helpful.
Contemplative practices that involve imagery, such as tonglen and loving-kindness meditation can foster the occasion of forgiveness of self and others.
Working with images can help foster emotional regulation and integration of the many parts of the self, such that we become more mindful in both our intra- and interpersonal interactions. There is both anecdotal and empirical evidence to back this up, from the cave images of our deep past to current scientific studies around perception and neuroplasticity. Even if we don’t explicitly engage in “imagery work,” we are calling images into our mental health practice at every moment, as each person shares their diversity and their unique narratives. Through a blending of mindfulness practices and respecting what is present through images, we both include and move beyond past maladaptive patterns and narratives and into a new autobiographical memory.
Metta,
Juliet Rohde-Brown, PhD
President
Imagery International
This post is offered as part of the American Psychological Association‘s Mental Health Month Blog Party today. Imagery International professionals use Guided Imagery to help clients and patients make desired changes in mental health and medical conditions. We as body/mind workers understand that the two are not independent. The following article by one of our members, Charlotte Reznick, PhD illustrates how working with a child’s imagination improves mental health and physical symptoms.
Helping Children with Guided Imagery
By Charlotte Reznick, Ph.D.
“Your imagination can help you heal.” This simple and elegant statement was the response nine-year-old Teresa gave me when asked what she had learned from our work together as we were wrapping up our counseling relationship.
Teresa is a beautiful, doe-eyed girl who first came to me a year ago because she was a goody-goody who would always be sweet and kind and never express any negative feelings. Imagine what a wonderful daughter she was. Who would want to change that? Her parents. They were concerned because her younger brother was very expressive—actually a terror around the house—and they didn’t want Teresa to get lost, but to be her own person. They wondered if she harbored truer feelings under the surface that were afraid to come out. And she did.
Teresa lived in a home filled with chaos. Although caring, her parents had serious, volatile marital issues. There was a new baby at home adding to the attention already taken away from Teresa by her four-year-old brother. Nannies were coming and going, partly because mom was in the midst of starting several new businesses. Teresa never knew who was going to show up at school, take her home, or drag her to some almost forgotten after-school activity.
I share some highlights of Teresa’s story with you not because she’s unusual, but because she’s typical. Her problems are the problems of thousands of kids: jealousy of younger sibs, trouble with friends, parents fighting, struggling with academics, grappling with fears of unworthiness, dealing with headaches and stomachaches—to name a few.
In my 25 years as a psychologist working with children from a variety of backgrounds, the most lasting and creative healings have taken place through using the power of a child’s imagination. Many of you may be familiar with some aspects of my Imagery For Kids™ program from AGI’s advanced training modules or previous conferences. My focus is on teaching children to access their inner wisdom; imagery tools offer an easy, fun way to get there.
Teresa’s healing journey began with her trying to please everyone, including me, to expressing herself so wildly and strongly that she got into a lot of trouble, to finally balancing how to communicate her needs, wants, and feelings while also considering other people. Imagery was the catalyst, fuel, and vehicle during this process.
During our final sessions, I was delighted that Teresa easily recounted how she incorporated imagery into her life and made the tools her own. Here’s her advice (with some commentary from me) on how to use eight of the imagery tools.
