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!

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.

My Perception of the Similarities between Hypnosis and Guided Imagery:

• Both hypnosis and guided imagery achieve a natural state of trance.
• Both hypnosis and guided imagery help the client achieve desired change.
• Both can be used to explore the core cause of a problem.
• Both give a client access to their inner wisdom.
• Both include an induction. Many hypnotherapists, like guided imagery practitioners, will ask the client to take some deep breaths, and then guide them in a progressive relaxation followed by imagery to induce trance. However, there are also many hypnotherapists who prefer rapid inductions where the conscious mind is startled and confused, leaving the subconscious receptive to suggestion. Imagery is not a part of this method, though it can be incorporated.

My Perception of the Differences between Hypnosis and Guided Imagery:

• With hypnosis, misconceptions need to be dispelled, and a pre-talk that educates the client is necessary before therapeutic work begins.
• Suggestibility tests are used as a part of the pre-talk process to see how receptive a client is and to show them the power of their imagination, therefore creating expectancy that the session will work.
• During a hypnosis session, “convincers” are necessary to show the client something is actually happening, that the process is therefore working. An example of a classic convincer, going way back in the history of hypnotism is referred to as “eye catalepsy.” The practitioner asks the client to pretend that their eyelids are so relaxed that they simply don’t work and then has the client then test them and find that the harder they try to open their eyelids, the tighter they close. The convincer that I like to use is to simply have the client focus all their awareness on one hand until they begin to notice some slight sensation that they wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. Maybe a little tingling, for example. (Don Mottin)
• Hypnosis is, perhaps, more concerned with measuring and achieving the depth of trance required by the therapeutic technique to be used. For example, age regression requires a deeper state of trance called somnambulism. Hypnotherapists will use deepeners to take the client deeper in trance. Deepeners include counting backwards, having the client imagine descending a pleasant staircase, etc. Susanne West gave a suggestion for a great deepener: Imagine a leaf or a feather slowly falling from a tall tree, taking you deeper and deeper as it falls gently to the ground.
• Hypnosis employs direct suggestion, which may, or may not evoke imagery. Direct suggestion is a lot like repeating affirmations. “I release stress from my life, and I’m a calmer, more effective, healthier person.” (Hypnosis for Change)

Some Examples of How I Use Imagery in My Practice

Suggestibility Test:

• Ask the client to stand up, put their arms out, palms up, close their eyes, and imagine one arm is carrying a heavy bucket of water and the other has helium balloons tied to it. Describe how heavy the bucket is and how tired their arm is getting, and how the other arm feels so light and can even feel the tug of the balloons pulling upward. Most clients arms will begin to move naturally—the heavy arm down, and the light arm up.
• Have the client imagine holding, feeling, smelling, and biting into a lemon.
• Melissa Tiers has a great suggestibility test where she asks clients to stand up, put one arm out, and twist around as far as they comfortably can go. She has them make a mental note on the wall where that is. She then has them close their eyes and imagine doing this a few different times, each time twisting farther and farther until they are like a cartoon with a rubber band spine, twisting around and around full circle. When she asks them to do it one last time physically, almost everyone twists farther than the first time. This is on her audio Integrative Hypnosis Training. It might also be in her newly released book : Integrative Hypnosis: A Comprehensive Course in Change.

Breathing

• Imagine ocean waves flowing in and out with your breathing. (Hartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis)
• Imagine a swing moving to the rhythm of your breathing. (Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors)
• Imagine blowing bubbles. If you blow too hard, it breaks the film; if you don’t blow hard enough, you get no bubbles at all. (Hartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis)
• Give your tension a color and imagine that each time you breathe out you are breathing out your tension in the form of a colored vapor. (Hartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis)

Imagery as a Part of the Induction Process.

• Going down a pleasant staircase, going down an elevator, walking down a pleasant path as I count from 10 down to one.
• Imagine a place where you feel safe, comfortable, and relaxed. It may be a familiar place, or one that you are imagining for the first time.
• Imagine looking at a beautiful painting or photograph of a soothing place. Imagine the picture getting larger and larger until it is life size and you can step into the frame. Explore the landscape.
• Imagine doing something you love.
• Imagine walking into the room of your subconscious mind, which is very cluttered. Get it clean and organized. Throw out the garbage. (Debi Livingston-Boushey)
• Imagine a room with sticky notes all over the walls. Written on them are all of your responsibilities and worries. Take them down, throw them in the recycling bin, and watch the recycling truck take them away. A fresh pad is returned to you. Write the word relaxed on it. (Mary Elizabeth Raines)

Direct Suggestion

• Creating a goal image and having the client merge with the image at the end of the session. For example, “Imagine that slimmer you stepping out of that mirror/photo and walking towards you, and you are walking towards her until the two of you merge and you can feel what it is like to be at your target weight.”
• Releasing the negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that have stood in the way of the desired change.
  • Imagine the negative being pitched to you like baseballs and you bat them out of the ball park.
  • Imagine the negative forming a sandcastle fortress that the ocean waves lap up and erode away.
  • Imagine the negative in the form of leaves, which you throw into a fast-moving river.
  • Imagine the negative in the form of balloons or bubbles, which you pop till they are gone.
  • Imagine the negative being transformed into birds, which fly away.
• Imagine achieving the desired change despite temptations and triggers.
• I’ll have weight loss clients imagine an internal fuel tank. 0 = empty/starving, 10 = full to the max—great for a car, but uncomfortable for a human. What number represents the experience of having eaten just enough to leave you comfortably full and satisfied? Take a break mid meal, and tune into the fuel gage to see where you are.
• At some point in a smoking cessation session, I’ll have clients standing at the fork in a road. One path is dreary, representing death, the other is bright and full of life, representing the choice to live a healthy, long life. (Gerald Kein)

Mental Rehearsals for Performance

I will have clients imagine, in detail how they want to perform. This is great for athletes and public speaking. I’ll have writers create a writing room in their mind and imagining the writing flowing there. A mental rehearsal is also a great way to see whether or not a person has gotten over a fear such as the fear of flying. We’ll have them imagine packing, driving to the airport, checking in, etc., and see how it feels.

Age Regression

It’s common to ask a series of rapid-fire questions after giving a client the suggestion to go to the core cause of a problem. These questions evoke imagery, and the experience unfolds. We’ll say, first impression—is it day time or night time? Are you indoors or outside? Are you sitting or standing? Are you alone or with someone? Notice your feet—how old are you? What’s happening?

Imagery can also be used to achieve clarity during a regression session. For example, the image/experience of the core cause is unclear, we can ask the client to imagine an old TV—adjusting dial or antennae for clearer reception. (Debi Livingston-Boushey)

These are just some of the many ways that I use imagery in my practice!

Excellent Books on Hypnosis

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy: Basic to Advanced Techniques for the Professional by Calvin D. Banyan & Gerald Kein (2001)

The Art of Hypnotherapy, 4th ed. by Roy Hunter (2010)

Integrative Hypnosis: A Comprehensive Course in Change by Melissa Tiers (2010)

Hypnotherapy by Dave Elman (1964)

Hypnosis for Inner Conflict Resolution: Introducing Parts Therapy by Roy Hunter (2005) (If you like to do sub personality work, I highly recommend this book!)

Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors by D. Corydon Hammond (1990)

I also recommend Randy Shaw and Matt Sison’s training materials for regression work.

Upcoming Guided Imagery Training in Oakland, California

Saturday, July 24, from 9:30 to 5:30, Susanne West is offering an Advanced Guided Imagery Certification the Center for Hypnotherapy in Oakland. I went to Susanne’s last training there, which was fantastic. I can’t wait for this one!

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.

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.

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.

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.