Healing And Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery

A guide to healing from trauma and crisis though the transformative potential of creative visualization techniques. Tapping into the heart's wisdom through creative visualization is an ancient practice, but today guided imagery is used as an adjunct to conventional medical therapies for health issues ranging from cancer and heart disease to post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. This inspiring guide provides contemporary techniques for using it to transform moments of pain, emotional turmoil, and interpersonal conflict into opportunities for growth and self-realization.

Guided imagery is a transformative practice for reducing stress, healing mind and body, and improving performance. This definitive collection brings together leading pioneers in the field of guided imagery to share its theory, practice and history. Readers are introduced to the extensive uses of imagery, from its medical application for pain relief, cancer care and other physical healing, through its significant contribution to mental health and depth psychology, to its application within the arts and as a vehicle for social change. An exploration of the place of imagery within spiritual and religious traditions includes a never before published guide to the internal alchemy of Daoist imagery. Transformative Imagery will enable professionals to tailor guided imagery to their individual practice, demonstrating how to use it with people of all ages, from chronic pain patients to athletes to combat veterans and for both mental and physical health.

Using methods he has taught to thousands of patients and health-care professionals since 1972, Dr. Rossman teaches a step-by-step method of harnessing the power of the mind to further one's own physical healing. Versatile and easy-to-learn, mental imagery as explained by Dr. Rossman, can be used to: Achieve deep physiological relaxation Stimulate healing responses in the body Create an inner dialogue and gain a better understanding of one's health Improve health and general well-being. The idea of guided imagery as an aid to the healing process is a recognized key component in the health care equation of mind/body healing. Starting with a discussion of the nature of imagery and how it works, Dr. Rossman presents specific scripts that can be used directly. Scripts include: Exploring Your Imagery Abilities, Basic Relaxation Skills, Deepening Techniques, Your Healing Imagery, Meeting Your Inner Advisor, Symptoms are Symbols, Grounding Your Insight, Learning From Your Resistance, and Your Image of Wellness. A practical and helpful book not only for those facing specific health problems but for all who wish to use the imagination for a wide range of individual purposes unlimited to health situations.

"Imagination is the window to the soul" - Aristotle More than a collection of stories, Guided Imagery and Beyond is a book about transformation. Imagery is the vehicle. "This book brings imagery, the most ancient of healing tools, into modern life with grace and sensitivity. It should be read and will be appreciated by health care professionals and consumers alike." - Jeanne Achterberg, PhD Author, Imagery in Healing: Shamanism and Modern Medicine and Healing Intentions (Sounds True, 2008) "In this book you will find a wide array of fascinating stories, showing the width and depth of what can be accomplished with guided imagery. Whether it is to heal, achieve optimal performance or to live a life rich in joy and love, mental imagery is the key; through reading these stories you will gain invaluable insight concerning ways to enhance and enrich your own life experience." - Emmett Miller, MD Author, Deep Healing "Susan Ezra and Terry Reed's book is profound and moving. It allows us to understand the deeper wisdom and compassion in our own life journeys and in the stories of others. Pearls of wisdom are shared to nourish our soul and the soul of our loved ones in all aspects of healing. There is reassurance that healing can happen at any time." - Barbara Dossey, Ph.D, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN Author, Florence Nightingale: Mystic, Visionary, Healer and Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice "Based on accountable real life experiences, the real power of this book about guided imagery is, paradoxically, its clinical reality." - Tak C. Poon, MD, FACC Founder of the Integrative Cardiac Prevention Program and the Integrative Metabolic Weight Program

One of the most beloved and trusted mindfulness teachers in America offers a lifeline for difficult times: the RAIN meditation, which awakens our courage and heart Tara Brach is an in-the-trenches teacher whose work counters today's ever-increasing onslaught of news, conflict, demands, and anxieties--stresses that leave us rushing around on auto-pilot and cut off from the presence and creativity that give our lives meaning. In this heartfelt and deeply practical book, she offers an antidote: an easy-to-learn four-step meditation that quickly loosens the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Each step in the meditation practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) is brought to life by memorable stories shared by Tara and her students as they deal with feelings of overwhelm, loss, and self-aversion, with painful relationships, and past trauma--and as they discover step-by-step the sources of love, forgiveness, compassion, and deep wisdom alive within all of us.

This edited collection is the first complete guide for rehabilitation professionals seeking to engage a whole-person, biopsychosocial, and mind-body medicine integrated approach to care. Drawing on the foundations of integrative medicine, Integrative Rehabilitation Practice (IRP) goes beyond the treatment of symptoms to explore multiple levels, roots, and possible contributing factors to individual's health experience. IRP acknowledges the complex inseparability of biological, behavioral, psychosocial, spiritual, and environmental influences. The book covers both the theoretical foundations of IRP and applications to practice in the fields of physical therapy, occupational therapy, yoga therapy, speech and language therapy, and many other professions. Featuring contributions from Matthew J. Taylor, Marlysa Sullivan, Andra DeVoght and other professionals, case studies, storytelling, and reflective exercises, this cross-disciplinary clinical training guide is essential reading for all rehabilitation professionals, as well as others interested in advancing whole-person care.

The comprehensive guide to imagery therapy for: the common cold, bone fractures, arthritis, hypertension, headaches, asthma, infertility, depression, pms, anxiety, obesity, and much more For years it has been widely known that the mind exerts a tremendous influence on our physical well-being—often determining the difference between health and disease. In Healing Visualizations, Dr. Gerald Epstein, a psychiatrist and pioneer in waking dream therapy, provides a new vision of how the mind can help heal the body through the power of “imaginal medicine.” Developed over fifteen years of clinical practice, Dr. Epstein’s safe, potent techniques for tapping the mind’s healing energy enable us to influence our own health with remarkably fast, positive results. More than seventy-five exercises cover specific health problems form common ailments such as allergies, colds, backaches, headaches, and arthritis to life-threatening illnesses such as heart disease and cancer. Each exercise takes just one to five minutes. And there are special visualizations for overall wellness that you can personalize to fit your own daily health and fitness needs. A revolutionary and inspiring program, Healing Visualizations is a major contribution to understanding, restoring, and maintaining the healthful unity of body and mind.

"Introduces The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), a powerful technique that uses the harmonies and melodies contained in classical music to unlock deep inner stresses and explore experiences embedded within the psyche."--Back cover.