What is imagery? - Chapter 20

This chapter will discuss imagery.

What sort of techniques are there to explain and deal with mental imagery?

Many clients experience automatic thoughts not only as unspoken words, but also in the form of mental pictures or images. Failure to identify and respond to upsetting images may result in continued distress for the client. The word image may not be clear to the client. The therapist can then use synonyms, such as mental picture or daydream. Some clients may not report their mental images, because they find them too distressing and don’t want to re-experience it. The therapist can teach them about these images and normalize them.

The therapist may tell about an image he/she gets while the client is telling him/her something. In this way the client will be better able to understand what the therapist means by a mental image. There are several techniques to teach a client to respond to their mental images:

• Following images to completion. The therapist will encourage clients to continue visualizing a spontaneous image until the client imagines getting through a crisis and feels better, or the client imagines a final catastrophe, such as death. In the first scenario the client can be convinced of a realistic outcome quite easily and the therapist can help the client with creating a new, more positive image. In the second case the client cuts of the image at the worst point. The client should imagine what would happen after the worst point. The therapist can also help the client induce a coping image.

• Jumping ahead in time. For example: The client is really struggling with a paper he has to make. When the therapist asks to complete the image the client only gets more anxious and keeps imagining more obstacles. In this case it is a good technique to suggest that the client imagines himself in the near future, while finishing his paper and sending it to his professor. This could make the client feel relieved and feel better and more confident about the future.

• Coping in the image. In this technique the therapist guides clients so they can imagine they are coping with a difficult situation they have spontaneously envisioned.

• Changing the image. The therapist teaches clients to reimagine a spontaneous image, changing the ending to alleviate their distress.

• Reality testing the image, just as is done with verbal automatic thoughts. It is better though to use an imagery technique for dealing with images.

• Repeating the image. The therapist suggests that clients keep imagining the original image over and over again, paying attention to whether their level of distress change. Some clients seem to do an automatic reality check, and make their image more realistic.

• Substituting images

What sort of techniques are there to induce imagery?

Sometimes the therapist will induce an image to help a client respond to a spontaneous image. Some techniques used to induce images:

• Covert rehearsal.

• Rehearsal of coping techniques. Clients continually imagine themselves realistically coping with the situation in detail. They practice using coping strategies in imagination.

• Distancing helps clients see their problems in greater perspective. The therapist shows clients that difficulties are likely to be time-limited. The therapist and client will look into the future and see how bad things really are.

• Reduction of perceived threat. The client views a situation with a more realistic assessment of actual threat. For example: imagining the encouraging faces of their friends when they have to do a presentation.