Archive for the ‘Guided Imagery’ Category

Attended Imagery International’s Annual Conference

October 26, 2010

 

This past weekend I had a wonderful experience at Imagery International’s annual conference at the Vallombrosa Retreat Center in Menlo Park, CA. The conference was co-sponsored by Beyond Ordinary Nursing.

The presenters were all guided imagery practitioners with different specialties, and each was a terrific teacher. I came away with a full heart and and a full mind.

Here is an outline of the curriculum:

Unlocking Limiting Money Beliefs through Imagery by financial consultant Denise Hughes, BSN, MA

Imagery: A Technique to Generate New Experiences in Recovery from Addiction by Randy Kasper, LCSW, BCD

Creating and Sustaining Hospital Based Imagery Programs by Leslie Davenport, MS, MFT

Imagery Session Trade facilitated by Jann Fredrickson Ramus, LICSW. (Participants paired off and guided each other into sessions that allowed them to explore an inner wisdom figure.)

Music and Imagery: Using Music to assist with Dreams and End of Life Care by Jeanne Martin, PhD

The Transcendent Function of Psychotherapy: How to use self-healing imagery within the unconscious as a tool for creativity, change and transformationTby Melissa Jones Cantekin, PhD

Incorporating Emotional Freedom Technique and Imagery into the Corporate Speaking Engagement by Maureen Imperial, BCH and Janine Thomson, BCH, CI of Imperial Thomson Innovative Wellness

Looking forward to next year’s conference!

Posted in Guided Imagery | 1 Comment »

Notes for my participation in Imagery International’s telechat on hypnosis and imagery

July 18, 2010

Imagery International, a professional association for guided imagery practitioners, asked me to speak on a panel of hypnotherapists for their telechat about hypnosis and imagery. I have included my notes here outlining my thoughts about the similarities and differences between the two fields, and how I use imagery in my hypnotherapy practice. (more…)

Posted in Books, Guided Imagery | Leave a Comment »

Neurofeedback and Guided Imagery for Athletes

February 7, 2010

I found this interesting article posted on Futurehealth.org on 2/6/10: “How Neurofeedback Therapy Can Help Athletes Reach Peak Performance Levels” by Dr. Clare Albright, a psychologist and neurofeedback practitioner in Orange County, CA. Here’s an excerpt:

Whether you are a professional athlete, or simply want to achieve your own personal best at your chosen sport, neurotherapy can help you reach new levels of performance, not just for a few fleeting moments, but more often, and for longer periods, than you have ever experienced before.

The Italian soccer team recently discovered this when they focused on retraining their thinking by using neurofeedback, along with guided imagery and other cognitive restructuring techniques, in a glassed-in room that became known as the “mind room.” Their use of these training methods drew much media attention when they won the World Cup in 2006, largely, it is believed, due to neurofeedback therapy.

Neurofeedback was instrumental in helping these athletes to free themselves from the stress and anxiety produced by self-criticism and by replaying past failures. Many athletes use positive imagery and visualization to center their focus on the desired outcome. Still, it can be a struggle to keep the mind from going over mistakes, in effect reinforcing them, and possibly causing a repetition of the regretted performance. Read the rest of the article here.

Posted in Guided Imagery, Sports Hypnosis | Leave a Comment »

Techniques that help athletes properly channel aggression

December 18, 2009

See Jeff Deitz’s 11/21/09 New York Times article, “Athletes Struggle to Channel Aggressive Nature” for an interesting discussion of the challenges an athlete may face in controlling his or her anger. Below is an excerpt, which suggests helpful techniques.

Champions must learn to control aggression under game conditions. Visualizing what lies ahead is crucial because being caught off guard by unexpectedly tenacious opponents drives the instinctual brain into fear mode, increasing unhelpful aggression. Sports psychologists offer many tried-and-true techniques, including attention-focusing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, meditation, deep breathing and yoga.

Biofeedback studies confirm that physiological arousal is lowered by mental exercise. Finding it, as opposed to losing it, means taking the thinking brain’s strength and agility out of the mental workout room and onto the playing field. Read the whole article here.

Posted in Guided Imagery, Hypnosis in the News, Sports Hypnosis | Leave a Comment »

Study shows that mental imagery training is effective

December 18, 2009

See ScienceDaily’s 12/4/09 article “Learning by imagining: How mental imagery training aids perceptual learning” for the results of an interesting new study.

Here’s the opening paragraph:

Practice makes perfect. But imaginary practice? Elisa Tartaglia of the Laboratory of Psychophysics at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and team show that perceptual learning — learning by repeated exposure to a stimulus — can occur by mental imagery as much as by the real thing. The results, published in Current Biology, suggest that thinking about something over and over again could actually be as good as doing it. Read the rest of the article here.

Posted in Guided Imagery, Hypnosis in the News | Leave a Comment »

Guided imagery proven to reduce abdominal pain in children

October 18, 2009

ScienceDaily

See Science Daily’s 10/13/09 article, “Children Can Greatly Reduce Abdominal Pain by Using Their Imagination,” for an exciting new study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University Medical Center.

Here is the opening paragraph:

Children with functional abdominal pain who used audio recordings of guided imagery at home in addition to standard medical treatment were almost three times as likely to improve their pain problem, compared to children who received standard treatment alone.

Read the rest of the article here.

Posted in Guided Imagery | 1 Comment »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 40 other followers