Imagery techniques
Imagery techniques
Imagery does not only concern visual images, it concerns all ‘inner sensory’ experiences: inner experience of touch, sound, smell, sight, movement, feeling, etc. Involving multiple senses generally deepens the imagination.
The different Imagination techniques
- The beginning stage of imagery: motivation, relaxation and concentration.
- Perceiving an image related to the be treated theme.
- Emotional contact with an image (going closer with the imagery, feeling the atmosphere, touching, etc.).
- Dialogue with an image (an ‘intuitive’ conversation with an image; the image ‘speaks’ just like in fairy tales).
- Identification with an image (the subject becomes one with the image).
- Creative expression (writing, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, poetry, singing, music, dramatic expression, etc.).
- Integration of the experience of the images in the body.
- Insight; discover the symbolic meaning in an image; recognizing it in everyday life.
- The application in the concrete reality of ‘the image’, i.e. putting the image into practice (SMART) in an acceptable, feasible way, by translating it into concrete actions (behavior) in the context of everyday life (personal, work, etc.).
Imagery does not require a particular intelligence, but it does require the person to be open to their inner world of images. If it is possible to make that contact, it turns out that it is often a meaningful experience which in the long run has effect in the emotional life, the thinking mind and even in concrete behavior.
The role of the coach/therapist (counselor) is to help the client find their own way and solutions in their image world and then to concretize in purposeful behavior. Sometimes the counselor follows the client, sometimes they direct, as necessary. Both methods of accompaniment belong to their set of instruments.
