Dr. Jeanne Achterberg, a leader in imagery exploration and application, refers to imagery as “the thought process that invokes and uses the senses: vision, audition, smell, taste, the senses of movement, position and touch. It is the communication between perception, emotion, and bodily change.” Guided Imagery can evoke change through the senses both physical and imagined by skillful guidance.

Guided Imagery Experienced

A definition does not capture the experience of working with a trained Guided Imagery practitioner.  And most people who have not had experience with this approach want to know about research on efficacy of Guided Imagery for changing symptoms, behavior before deciding to try it out.  Imagery International’s professionals have written about their work over the years and through articles in Imagery International’s newsletter – ImagiNews -  discuss how they have incorporated their Guided Imagery training into their practices.

Our membership is comprised of diverse licensed and certified professionals who show how this work is useful to virtually all types of work.

To see these articles that range from relevant research citations to treatment of symptoms and behavioral problems visit our About Guided Imagery page.

All types of professionals are not represented here.  We will be adding information as articles are submitted.

Leslie Davenport

Tapping into the heart’s wisdom through imagery is an ancient practice, but today guided imagery is enjoying a renaissance in a variety of medical, psychological, educational, artistic and spiritual practices. It is used in as part of treatment with medical conditions, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, phobias, writer’s block, athletic performance, and deepening spiritual practice.  I hope to see you at one of these upcoming events

April 16: Guided Imagery to Support Grief Sutter Hospice
10:30AM – 12:30PM, San Mateo, California

April 22 – June 10: Integrative Healing for Cancer Care: An Educational Support Group
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
Fridays 1:30PM – 3:30PM,  Free  415-600-3081

May 7: Shout! A Healing Arts Day for Veterans San Francisco, California Free 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

May 14 & 15: Revive, Thrive & Restore to the Core Wellness Retreat Renaissance ClubSport, Walnut Creek, California.

June 25: Spirituality & Religion in Psychotherapy
JFK University, Berkeley, California. CE Credit.

August 20: Spirituality & Religion in Psychotherapy
in Campbell, California  CE Credit.

September 10: Clinical Application of Deep Imagination
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Institute for Health & Healing, San Francisco, CE Credits

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Leslie’s book Healing and Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery includes a self-facilitation worksheet with step-by-step instructions for unscripted guided imagery everyone can learn. It is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

To find out more about Leslie Davenport, visit her website:

http://www.lesliedavenport.com/

from David Spero RN’s blog Reason to Live: Healing stories and Self-Care Strategies For Chronic Illness, Depression, and Hard Times

When I worked at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, I had an 82 year old cardiac patient named Wilson.  First name Mel, but he preferred just “Wilson.” He was one of those classic crotchety old guys, wrinkled, with a scruffy white beard.  He had been a Merchant Marine and could swear like it if he felt it necessary.

David Spero

But he also had a gentle sense of humor and was a favorite of the nurses, because he could make us laugh.

Wilson had come to hospital because of a heart attack, and he was still having frequent angina (chest) pain, requiring nitroglycerin for relief.  One day, Dr. Simon, the hospital’s top cardiac surgeon, a tall distinguished looking man in a suit, not a lab coat, came in and told Wilson, “We need to do coronary artery bypass surgery on you.”

“I don’t like that idea much,” Wilson replied, as flatly as if he was deciding on the lunch menu.

“Well,” said the doctor, “If you don’t have the surgery, you’ll die.”

Wilson immediately brightened up.  “You mean,” he asked with apparent excitement, “if I have this surgery, I won’t die? Great! When did you guys come up with that?  I’m surprised it hasn’t been in the papers.”

Dr. Simon had to backtrack, looking somewhat embarrassed and bemused at the same time. “I’m afraid you misunderstood,” he said.  “What I meant is, you won’t die from these blocked arteries.”

“Oh,” replied Wilson, as if greatly disappointed.  “So we’re just talking about timing then. You had me going for a minute. In that case, get out of here.  Keep your hands off my heart.”

After Dr. Simon hurriedly left, Wilson broke out in a huge smile.  “I liked seeing that hot shot squirm,” he told me. “Acts like he’s doing me some big favor, wants to put me through Hell so I can live maybe another year, if I survive the operation. I don’t need to live forever. I need to enjoy myself while I’m here.”

We talked often in the two weeks he stayed on my floor. “I’m not scared of dying; I don’t mind talking about it,” he told me. “I’m glad you’re willing to listen, because most of you hospital people don’t want to hear. You’re part of the madness, wanting to live forever, whatever it costs, no matter how much it hurts.”

I asked him how he came to his acceptance of death.  “That’s easy,” he said. “I’ve lived. I’ve had fun; I’ve had love. Still do sometimes. I fought some good fights. Didn’t win many of them, but I did what I thought was right, most of the time. I think when people are so afraid of death, it’s because they haven’t really lived.”

Then he went home, and lived another four or five years, apparently enjoying most of it. Later, I did some research and found that the great psychiatrist Irvin Yalom used Wilson’s words almost exactly in his book Staring at the Sun. Yalom says it’s natural to fear death, because it’s the unknown. It’s normal to feel sad about it, because it means loss.  But the extreme, obsessive fear of death in American culture is not normal. It stems from a pervasive belief that we have not lived, at least not the way we wanted to.

Accepting Death

So how can we get to a place of acceptance about death?  Having a chronic disabling disease like MS helps, but frankly, that’s no fun.  A belief in an afterlife doesn’t appear to help much. If it did, why would Christian “right to lifers” be so bent on keeping brain-dead people like Terri Schiavo on life support? Why not let her go to Heaven, if you think there is such a place?

I think a better way is to live thoroughly while you’re here.  Be aware, be grateful, be brave.  Live like Wilson and have some fun. You’ll be a joy to others and have less suffering for yourself.

I hope I have accepted death for myself, because not fearing opens up my life. I don’t have to worry about everything I eat or everything I do. I don’t run to the doctor for every ache and pain. Accepting death doesn’t mean forgetting about self-care, but it does mean having a more relaxed attitude about it.

But more important, I don’t have to be afraid of people.  I can say what I believe and do what I want. I don’t hurt others, if I can help it, but I’m not scared to wind up on a no-fly list or be arrested for speaking my mind. I’m not going out of my way to court death, but I’m going to stand up (figuratively speaking) for what’s right.  At least, that’s the plan. Sound good to you?

You can visit David’s blog here.

About David

I’m David Spero RN. I have been a nurse for 35 years and have lived with multiple sclerosis for 25 years. I am writing about self-care and healing, the social dimensions of illness, and especially about reasons to live.  I’ve written books about self-care and the politics of diabetes, which you can see on my main web site.
I’ll be posting new pieces most Fridays.  I look forward to your comments. Please send questions and ideas, and I will consider publishing your short work as well.

The three points Dr. Morris focuses on are:

1. Admit government cannot do it all.
2. Confront our unholy love affair with technology.
3. Stop skittering around end-of-life issues.

I’ve been studying alternative approaches to health and wellness for the last 30 years. My working hypothesis is that unrecognized trauma (trauma includes experiences that do not fit with the definition of PTSD) can generate symptoms that are misdiagnosed and mistreated as disease.  Medicine/medical doctors do not recognize the difference between trauma based symptoms and organic symptoms in diagnosis and treatment.  If treated as a disease, trauma symptoms do not respond as expected. People who are not cured will have a chronic problem that often requires maintenance with drugs.

An alternative response to failure of medications to work is ‘we need more tests’ or lets try another drug.  Where there is good research showing alternative approaches achieve excellent results, that approach is not likely referred – Irritable bowel is an example.

Dr. Morris discusses his hard hitting observations about fear of death and the focus on death panels. He believes that patients are kept alive at great expense because of fear of death and not for love or care.

I believe the even greater over-arching unconscious motivation is fear of loss.

Medical practice called defensive medicine is done out of fear of malpractice suits from a patient or family member’s loss.   The legal system will make the problem worse as lawyers have carte blanche to assault and make innocent medical professionals and traumatized patients appear guilty in their quest for justice.

Heart disease is major health concern in the US that needs to be part of the national dialogue.  It is no small thing that the heart can grow capillaries to repair itself.  Dean Ornishe showed with graphic pictures that heart disease can be reversed without drugs in his book Reversing Heart Disease. We are led to believe that doctors respond appropriately to what good scientific finds. Yet cardiac specialists typically do not include the information about Ornishe’s work in consultation with patients.

I learned from one doctor in a public forum about heart disease that he does not offer any information on this approach as the capillaries are small and can be easily undone in a short period of time. This doctor prefers to do bypass surgery which is good for about 10 years.  (Smokers are denied the surgery.)  The cardiologists are focused on diet and exercise and leave out the really critical piece.  Dialoging with the heart – a Guided Imagery approach was used in Ornishe’s program. Asked to  Imagine what an ailing heart looks like, the patient begins a very personal linking of the mind with a vital body part that is in pain and dysregulation. This kind of work is not the same as making a person responsible for his or her illness. It is making them aware on a deeper level about what is missing or needed for better health and wellness.

If you read the articles on our website about how Guided Imagery is used in working with chronic illness, death and dying, and a host of medically diagnosed conditions you will find that Guided Imagery works with symptoms resistant to medical treatment.

The government’s plan to make everybody pay for insurance will not fix the broken health-care system.

Money and insurance are not going to fix what is wrong with the “healthcare” system.  Thank you Dr. Morris for offering a sensible discussion on what to address in the broken health-care system.

Sandra Warnken, CCHT, SEP

Dr. Morris writes
Who takes care of people with no health insurance? For more than two years, the debate has been front and central. A new Congress now faces public hostility mixed with public expectations for action on this question. Whether the health-reform legislation passed last year stands up under the scrutiny ahead, too much of the discussion about health-care reform misses the mark.

Addressing the fractured economics of the health industry does not automatically make people healthier. I hope that, as a nation, we can move the discussion to three focused priorities that address true health.

* Admit government cannot do it all.

Washington needs to admit it does not have the ability to improve the health outcomes we need in America. Money alone will not make anyone healthier. And whether people agree with health-care reform or not, too many perceive that, because the government is involved, local clinics no longer need private support. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even when the health-reform legislation is fully implemented in 2019, at least 23 million people will remain uninsured — and probably many more.

Twenty-four years ago, I opened the Church Health Clinic in Memphis, Tenn., to care for the working uninsured. We’re hard at work every day answering the question, “Who takes care of people with no insurance?” by saying “We do!” We are not federally funded, yet we care for 55,000 people in our city. More than 600 physicians volunteer their services, and
every hospital in the city supports our work. The Church Health Center provides the same quality of care you would insist on for your mother. Hundreds of charitable clinics around the country make a difference in hundreds of thousands of lives without depending on government funds.

We’ve seen a growing number of patients whose working hours have been cut to below 30 hours a week, which means they lose their insurance. Others who made $100,000 in 2008 now work in small stores earning $19,000 with no benefits. More and more middle-aged people who worked in one trade for 30 years now try to live on $104 a week in unemployment benefits. We see these people every day. We know their names and faces and stories. The best improvements in health for individuals will come at the local level, including clinics that do not depend on government funds. Click here to read the rest of the article.

He concludes “Let’s not waste any more energy or money arguing about how to pay for legislation that skirts the real issues that would make Americans healthier.”
The author is founder of the Church Health Center, Memphis, Tenn., and wrote the newly published book “Health Care You Can Live With,” (Barbour, 2011). Visit his website http://www.healthcareyoucanlivewith.com

Co-Sponsored by

Beyond Ordinary Nursing

Imagery for the Future: Illuminating Lives

October 22-24, 2010
Vallombrosa Center, Menlo Park, California

Visit Imagery International’s Annual Conference webpage to see our featured speakers and topics.  Their pictures and biographies are also posted here.  On the conference page you can conveniently register online or download, print the registration form and mail it in with your check.

Attendees who attend all workshops receive 11 contact hours, provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, provider #13833,. This course meets the qualifications for continuing education credit for MFTs/LCSWs as required by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences, provider #PCE 3201.

We have designed the conference to meet practitioners needs for an economical conference.  This is an exciting, educational and inspiring event for imagery practitioners no matter what your training. Your participation will help us mainstream guided imagery, so do plan to come.