Guided Imagery

Creative Interventions in Counselling & Psychotherapy

Eric Hall, Carol Hall, Pamela Stradling, Diane Young

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781446229101
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

`I would recommend reading this enjoyable book in which the authors convey practical, creative and compassionate authenticity throughout. I think it will appeal to experienced counsellors, psychotherapists and arts therapists. It will also be a valuable resource to students? - Therapy Today

` Hall et al bring many years of practice and academic experience to their material. The book is accessible in its style and makes extensive use of interesting case histories? - Eisteach (Journal for the Irish Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy)

`fascinating scenarios…. a useful book to have - I have really enjoyed reading it? - International Arts Therapies Journal (Online)

Guided Imagery is a unique, practical guide to using imagery in one-to-one therapeutic work with clients. Through numerous examples drawn from their own experience, the authors show how the techniques involved can be integrated into everyday practice.

The authors describe the different processes of using guided imagery and working from a script and show how drawing can be used to augment imagery work. In addition to planned strategies for using imagery, they also show how images which arise spontaneously during sessions can be harnessed and used to enhance the therapeutic process.

The practical strategies and techniques outlined in the book are examined in the context of a variety of theoretical frameworks (the person-centred approach, gestalt, existentialism and psychosynthesis) and research findings. Potential pitfalls and ethical considerations are also explored, making Guided Imagery a useful resource for practitioners and an ideal text for use on counselling and psychotherapy training courses.

1

Guided Imagery in the Therapeutic Setting: Historical and Psychological Foundations

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. When we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen.

(Henry Thoreau, 1817–62)

In this chapter we provide an overview of the historical and psychological foundations of guided imagery and how its use was developed in clinical settings. This involves two distinct strands; first, the approaches taken by psychologists in the empirical research tradition of the USA and the UK and second, developments emerging out of the work of psychiatrists and clinicians in continental Europe. We begin with the problems of defining imagery and the related notion of fantasy.

The challenge of definition is increased by the linguistic confusion created between the terms imagery and fantasy. These terms are often used as if they were interchangeable, although to be precise, all fantasy includes imagery, but not all imagery includes fantasy. If we asked you to summon up a memory image of the first school you attended, the memory image would probably not include any conscious elements of fantasy, even though it might be distorted by time. As a term, imagery tends to be used as an over-arching umbrella concept in a broader sense than fantasy and in a definition distilled from several writers refers to:

An internal representation of a perception of the external world, in the absence of that external experience.

Whereas the term fantasy refers to:

A series of spontaneously created internal representations that may be fantastical, bizarre or unlike any previous experience of reality.

Compare the previous example of the memory of the school with the image of a dragon in a suit of armour fighting a monster with three legs. The second image will probably have more ‘fantastic’ or imaginal elements in it. Fantasy is used to describe a sequence of internal events that do not necessarily seek to represent external reality in any controlled, rational or conscious sense. Fantasy images frequently emerge and flow in forms that are non-linear, altogether different from everyday experience of time and the material world. Perceptions of time may be collapsed or extended and temporal sequences distorted. Some outrageous fantasies may simply be unusual combinations of earlier experience, such as pictures of dragons and suits of armour and we may be simply combining memories of seeing these pictures in a haphazard way. The term imagery is usually construed to be a positive one and teachers will encourage students to use their imagination, which invariably includes elements of imagery. Fantasy, on the other hand, is regarded as inattention and students are told not to daydream. Both guided and scripted imagery may produce elements of fantasy, but we will use the term imagery as it is used more extensively and understood in the therapeutic community.

Fantasy or reality

Although we have been confidently using terms like ‘internal’ and ‘external’ experience, the difference between fantasy and reality is not always clear cut. In early psychological experiments, subjects failed to distinguish between an object they were asked to imagine and a picture of the same object projected onto the back of a blank screen (Perky, 1910; Segal and Nathan, 1964). Sometimes we may ‘see’ a projection of how we wish the external world to be, rather than what is really there. In the case of mistaken identity, for example, we may see the person we were hoping or expecting to see and, realising the mistake, their features actually change in front of us. Similarly, counsellors and clients may distort their perceptions of each other on the basis of expectations, fantasies in just the same way. In Buddhist teaching the practice of mindfulness focuses awareness on illusion which is considered to be the basis of emotional suffering and the practice of meditation encourages the individual to ‘see things clearly’ (Hall, 1999).

Using the senses

If asked to report an experience of imagery, individuals will often do it using visual terms, a description of what can be ‘seen’ in the ‘mind’s eye’. However, imagery can, and often does, involve any or all of the senses: hearing, taste, smell, touch, balance, hot, cold and pain, as well as sight. In our experience, clients describe images using all of the senses, though many will start with and predominately use visual imagery, even though they may be later encouraged to involve other sense data. If imagined conversations are part of the imagery sequence, then these will be experienced as auditory imagery, sometimes coupled with reports of bodily sensations, particularly in relation to feelings (e.g. butterflies in the stomach) and tension in the muscles.

Vividness and forms of imagery

Hume (1912) suggested that images have less ‘force and vivacity’ than normal ‘sensations, passions and emotions’. This may have been the case for Hume, but it is not necessarily true for everyone. Some people inhabit a rich, vivid fantasy world. This may be a form of compensation for an otherwise humdrum existence or even a form of introversion. It is, of course, equally possible to have a rich external life as well as a vivid inner life. It may be that Hume, by foregrounding the importance of his own rational, logical thinking, diminished the force of his own imaginative capacity as a result.

Galton, the nineteenth-century psychologist, tested eminent scientists on their ability to summon up an image of their own breakfast table. Many of them reported experiencing no visual imagery at all (Galton, 1883). Self-report testimony is fraught with difficulties for the researcher. Psychologists have asked subjects to rate the vividness of their imagery, but there is of course no way of comparing these ratings. A person who claims to be experiencing vivid imagery may be having vaguer images than someone who is more modest in their self-rating. In this respect comparisons of the internal experience of individuals are methodological minefields and finally add little to our understanding of the deep subjectivity of the experience.

Despite problems of self-report, it is likely that there are differences in the quality of the imagery that individuals experience. Again, Galton’s scientists perhaps might have diminished their more visual, imaginal capacity by an emphasis on the logical, rational and observable description of external phenomena. However, it is interesting that some exceptionally innovative scientific discoveries have been made in a state of dreaming or reverie. Kekule, a nineteenth-century chemist, came to an understanding that organic molecules like benzine are closed rings or loops following a dream of snakes swallowing their tails. Singer, one of the few psychologists to study imagery seriously, reports experiences of rich visual imagery throughout his life, which may explain the motivation for the direction of his research (Singer, 1974).

Forms of imagery that are not our prime concern in a therapeutic context but which may be experienced during a guided imagery episode are:

1. After-imagery. This can be produced by staring at a well-lit object for a period of time and then shifting the gaze to a blank surface. The resultant after-image is probably due to lingering activity in the retina.
2. Eidetic imagery. This is the ability to look at a complex visual scene and then be able to ‘see’ it in the ‘mind’s eye’ and describe it in fine detail, as if the eye were a camera. This ability is largely limited to children and people living in non-technological societies (Richardson, 1969). Some formally educated adults retain this ability in the form of a photographic memory. Some lucky students are able to ‘photograph’ pages of notes and reproduce them later under examination conditions.
3. Memory imagery. This is quite simply remembering or recalling in imagination events from the past. Unlike the photographic quality of eidetic imagery, when we try to remember events from the past, for most of us, it tends to be a relatively vaguer experience. It is more the equivalent of an impressionistic landscape or watercolour of a scene rather than a photograph, so dimensions and perspectives might have changed over time.
4. Daydreaming. Daydreaming is a very common activity, though we may feel guilty about it or even deny that we do it. However, daydreaming is not just an indulgence of the idle, but as Singer (1966) suggests, is something we do most of the time, even when performing complex intellectual operations. Paying attention to the thematic content of daydreams may highlight areas of current concern in your life; either through noticing recurrent patterns of behaviour or by illuminating unfulfilled hopes and dreams that remain frustratingly unrealised.
5. Hypnogogic and hypnopompic imagery. These are respectively the images that emerge into consciousness as we fall asleep or wake up. The dream-like qualities of hypnogogic and hypnopompic imagery may also be present during guided imagery.
6. Dreaming. Dreaming appears to be a universal phenomenon but reports concerning the experience of dreaming vary from individual to individual. Some individuals experience guided imagery as being like their dreams or a dreamlike state. However, generally waking imagery is understood to be a qualitatively different experience to dream imagery.
7. Hallucinations and perceptual deprivation imagery. If an individual’s sensory experience is limited in some way, perhaps as part of a psychological experiment, under torture such as brain-washing, or even performing a monotonous task, then images may be produced spontaneously by the brain. It is as if the nervous system feels the need to produce visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations in order to make up the deficit when access to sensory experience is limited or denied.

Laboratory-based imagery research

In the nineteenth century, the study of mental states was largely done through the process of researcher introspection, involving the investigators reflecting on their subjective experience of internal processes. This culminated at the turn of the century in the work of Tichener, who is reported to have had unusually vivid visual imagery. He argued that all thinking involved forms of visual and auditory imagery. Other writers claimed that, on the contrary, it was possible to experience imageless thought and it may be that these different points of view stem from the different subjective experiences of the investigators.

The study by Galton (1883) in which he compared the visual imagery of scientists, artists, schoolboys and statesmen (all male) demonstrated a paucity of imagery among scientists and vivid, strong visual imagery among artists. The statement from one of Galton’s scientists reflects the position of some contemporary analytical philosophers:

It is really only a figure of speech that I can describe my recollection of a ‘mental image’ which I can see with the mind’s eye.

It is understandable that the period of introspectionism produced considerable discussion of imagery, as it involved the study of mental content. However, following the development of behaviourism in psychology in the first half of the twentieth century, with its insistence on objective, positivist research methods, subjective phenomena such as imagery fell out of favour as an appropriate area of study. This produced a virtual eclipse of the study of imagery in western psychology until the early 1950s.

In the 1950s, academic interest in imagery began to revive. Roe (1951) examined the differences in the imagery of different kinds of scientists. Physiological research demonstrated that imagery could not be ignored, as differences in EEG recordings were thought to reflect qualitative differences in imagery. Short (1953) reported that subjects with persistent alpha brain rhythms tended to be verbal imagers, whereas subjects within the normal responsive alpha range reflected a predominance of visual imagery. A lack of alpha rhythms in subjects was associated with vivid powers of visualisation and may also reflect the relaxed state that invariably accompanies the experience of guided imagery. This was followed by Singer’s (1966) review of research into daydreaming, which suggested that daydreaming occurs most of the time, with most people, and even intrudes into complex, directed mental activity.

None of the published research at this time includes any mention of guided imagery or even acknowledges its existence as part of the therapeutic process. The first formal review of work in the area is provided again by Singer as recently as 1974, in his work entitled Imagery and Daydream Methods in Psychotherapy and Behavior Modification. This was followed by Mary Watkins’ (1976) integration of literary and clinical approaches to what she calls Waking Dreams.

Data from the psychiatrists’ couch

European psychologists felt less restricted by the methodological constraints imposed by the behaviourists, and interpreted the outcomes of clinical practice using a philosophically driven approach. This work is reviewed by Ellenberger (1970) who traces the origins of their thinking back to the revival of romanticism in the nineteenth century, which produced a renewed interest in the imagination and the nature of the unconscious. This was partly inspired by earlier work on hypnotism by Mesmer (1734–1815), using what he called animal magnetism, and later by Charcot (1825–1893). Under a magnetic sleep (an early term for hypnosis) several patients appeared to change personality, as if a new persona had emerged, which had an existence of its own. This new personality often showed finer qualities than the patient displayed in everyday life. Similarly, improvements in functioning can result from guided imagery and may even reflect aspects of sub-personalities (Rowan, 1990) which find expression through the generation of imagery.

Myers (1885) wrote about the ‘mythopoetic function’ of the subliminal self, a way of describing the unconscious tendency to weave fantasies. The term ‘mythopoetic’ was taken up by Watkins (1976) and used as a descriptive term for the process behind the generation of images during guided imagery. Ellenberger (1970) also discusses the work of Flournoy (1854–1920) and Janet (1859–1947). Flournoy examined dreams, daydreaming, somnambulism, hypnosis, possession and delusion. He came to similar conclusions as Myers, that these phenomena were manifestations of the creative function of the unconscious and that they were capable of generating a wisdom and intelligence that was not conventionally displayed by the individual; as well as producing regressive or bizarre images.

Janet combined hypnosis with spiritist procedures such as automatic writing and crystal gazing to generate images from his patients’ unconscious. He believed the images produced in this way were manifestations of split-off parts of the personality, which were repressed into the patient’s unconscious. Having brought this material into consciousness, Janet then attempted to change or even eradicate the source of the unconscious material. Binet (1857–1911), a contemporary of Janet, employed similar approaches with his patients. He developed a technique for helping them talk to and converse with the visual images that they produced and then related the material produced to the expression of unconscious personalities which might be inhibiting the patient’s growth.

The psychoanalytic tradition grew out of Freud’s early experience with hypnosis in the late nineteenth century (Breuer and Freud, 1955). He would press his hand on the patient’s head to stimulate images which related to the patient’s problems. In the case of Lucy R, he offered her the suggestion that images would appear when the pressure on the head was removed. He was soon to move from the direct use of imagery-generating techniques to the more extended form of free association, for which Freud is most widely known. Free association involved the patient keeping the eyes open which to some extent diminished the possibility of generating imagery. The analysis of visual and auditory images still played an important part in the interpretation of dreams and fantasies and the evocation of early memories. Indeed, Freud decided that reports of early memories of female clients which involved seduction by their fathers were in fact products of fantasy.

Jung (1875–1961) has probably had more influence than any other writer in developing an awareness of the importance of the imagination for understanding the unconscious processes of the human mind. Jung went through a period of intense personal analysis, which included experimentation with spontaneous creative activities, such as building sand castles, carving stone, painting mandalas and pictures. He also describes generating visual images and holding conversations with people appearing in his imagination. Jung (1961) describes these activities as ‘confrontations with the unconscious’ and argues that the process of free association is often used by patients as a means of avoiding important elements of dreams and fantasies. He stressed the import...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• To the Reader
• Introduction Imagery: The Language of the Soul
• 1 Guided Imagery in the Therapeutic Setting: Historical and Psychological Foundations
• 2 Guided Imagery in Therapeutic Practice
• 3 Themes in Dialogic Guided Imagery
• 4 Counsellor Perspectives on Managing the Client–Counsellor Relationship
• 5 Generating Guided Imagery Using Scripts
• 6 Using Drawing to Explore Imagery
• 7 Working with Spontaneously Generated Imagery
• 8 Bringing the Body Alive
• 9 How Do We Know it Works?
• 10 Ethical Considerations: Contraindications and Health Warnings
• Postscript
• References
• Index