The Beginners Handbook to the Art of Guided Imagery: A Professional and Personal Step-By-Step Guide to Developing and Implementing Guided Imagery. 23 Written Imageries with Centering Readings

By Virginia L. Thompson

As private and professional healers, we are the gatekeepers to the place within where healing begins. Guided Imagery functions as a possible key to unlocking this gate.

Learn the simple steps to creating, developing, and implementing your own guided imageries.

Enjoy experimenting with this life-changing tool by using the prewritten and transforming imageries as a professional or with a group of like-minded friends to expand your personal awareness and spiritual growth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jun 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504334419

Virginia L. Thompson

Virginia Thompson was the founder of One Spirit Ministry and is a spiritual mentor and registered nurse specializing in mental health and addiction. She has been teaching the art of guided imagery for over twenty years, both professionally and privately. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her dog, near her two grown daughters.

Book preview

The

Beginners Handbook

To The Art Of

GUIDED IMAGERY

A Professional and Personal Step-by-Step Guide to Developing and Implementing Guided Imagery. 23 Written Imageries

with Centering Readings

Virginia L. Thompson

28839.png

Copyright © 2015 Virginia L. Thompson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3440-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3442-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-3441-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015909095

Balboa Press rev. date: 06/10/2015

Contents

Part 1: Step by Step Suggestions in Developing and Implementing of Guided Imagery

1. The Benefits of Guided Imagery

2. Choosing the Atmosphere

3. Beneficial Placement of Guided Imagery Groups in a Structured Program

4. Preparing the Group and the Obstacles that Facilitators Encounter

5. Background

6. Using pre-recorded imagery

7. The Art of Breathing

8. Various Relaxation Techniques

9. Routes of Imagery

10. Imagery Destinations

11. Symbols

12. Grounding the group at the end of the imagery

13. Group processing

14. Facilitator’s obstacles to cultivating the healing process of imagery

Part 2: Written Imageries

1. Awakening to the Light

2. Love

3. Separation- The Illusion of Disunity

4. Mercy and Forgiveness

5. Integrity

6. Surrender

7. Compassion

8. Empowerment

9. Discipline

10. Service

11. Balance

12. Abundance

13. Your Divine Self

14. Expression

15. Silence

16. Generosity of Spirit

17. Redemption and Rebirth

18. Transforming In This World

19. Peace

20. Vessel of Divine Will

21. Wisdom

22. Wholeness

23. Freedom

Acknowledgments

Cover art by Sadie Thompson

Special appreciation to Tara Young-Gottula for her careful editing and transcription.

Thank you Alexandra Goodier for technical support and PR management and Sadie Thompson for the cover art. I love you both and feel stronger with your support in this endeavor.

Grateful for encouragement from Kelly Madigan, Robin Kremer, Brooke Pelster-Hess, Darla Weisbeck, Keri Schell Nider and Paige Namuth to name only a few.

Dedicated to Sharon De Nino, the first transcriber who has passed away. Without your kind words and willingness, this may not have been written.

And Teri Temple-Anderson, my first spiritual teacher, who taught me this technique and much more.

Preface

The first part of this book will provide a step-by-step course of instruction to develop and implement guided imagery with relaxation in an effective and beneficial manner. This step-by-step instruction will allow the facilitator to first use guided imagery that may already have been written or prerecorded, and/or guide you through the process of writing your own imagery, ultimately developing your own healing program using this tool. This tool can be used to reach adult or adolescent populations to increase trust, stability and progress in their healing process. It will also address the group process following the guided imagery and ideas that they may use to receive the most benefit from the guided imagery in connecting the symbols and the experience to the participants or their own personal healing process. It will address the certain behaviors of the professionals/ facilitators that are more conducive to cultivating the healing experience this tool provides as well as problems or obstacles that may come up during this type of group process.

Introduction

Guided Imagery is a form of meditation that uses relaxation and visualization for the purpose of discovering, healing, balancing and centering. It is a practice of focusing the mind. This practice has been recognized in several cultures for thousands of years. Some believe that it originated with Hinduism, but it has been linked to much more ancient ties. Guided Imagery utilizes the emotional, mental and spiritual faculties to work together. This tool of imagery can be used on a personal basis or as a professional in working with clients in many types of healing practices. It is a safe, non-invasive, deliberate form of exploring. And a healing ability that all human beings carry within our higher minds to transform our selves on every level in the human experience.

One of the unique qualities of this form of healing allows the individual participating in the imagery to find answers for themselves, within themselves, rather than having someone else tell them what answers are appropriate for them. It allows the individual to become empowered and understand that they do carry all the answers, their own wisdom, within them.

Professionals using this material can create a safe and encouraging environment for the work of healing as this technique may open doorways into the wounds of the participant without a sense of force. Instead it is done as an invitation from the recipient by creating an understanding and willingness to initiate the beginning of a dialogue. This also empowers the recipients as individuals and gives permission to their healthy defense mechanisms to guard them, allowing a gentle healing process.

The tool of guided imagery is beneficial in the practice of healers because it can expedite the process of discovering the direction needed for healing. Gently moving through that process of healing, this tool creates a sacred, safe, nonthreatening experience and many of the unhealthy mechanisms that would normally impede the process simply seem to fall away. Facilitators using this tool have found that participants can get to, as we say, the meat of the issue much more quickly. Not because of forceful prompting by us but simply by the readiness on a spiritual level of the participant to begin to pursue this experience. Therefore, the healer simply becomes a sort of gatekeeper that shows a pathway to the participant that they may walk down if they so choose while always feeling in control of their own experience. Safe and blessed in the end by their courageous allowance, possibly for the first time, they have felt blessed because of a choice they have made.

Using guided imagery as a personal experience can be very beneficial for many reasons and can be used for healing just as the professionals do, affecting growth on all levels of the human experience. Those seeking their own Spiritual Truth may use guided imagery in their awakening spiritual journey to remind themselves of the connection that they have between themselves and their Creator. Many will use this healing practice as a creative tool of manifestation for the changes they wish to bring forth in their lives. They may also use this tool as was understood by the Navaho Indians, a culture that revered this practice for the purpose of healing or creating a healthy body. They would go into a meditative state and intuit places within the body they perceived as an injury or sickness. Releasing the unhealthy cells, bacteria, illness or any dis-ease they may believe to be creating imbalance from the body, the healer would then visualize the body to be in perfect balance and health.

Guided imagery is also a wonderful tool to use on a regular basis as meditation for the centering of the mind, body and soul to improve the life experience on a daily basis.

Pre-recorded guided imageries have been used in many types of treatment facilities including the Veterans Administration, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health programs and cancer centers worldwide as a part of the healing process.

My first experience with guided imagery relaxation was well over twenty five years ago when I was in a therapeutic environment myself for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I was brought into a group with a doctor that, as a part of his treatment structure, used guided imagery. They called it guided visualization. During the imagery I remember that I had a very difficult time relaxing. To be honest, I was not excited about closing my eyes in a room essentially comprised of strangers. Early in the experience he used a now common relaxation technique, moving through the muscles one set at a time. This was helpful for me (a not so trusting person at the time) to relax and become very focused on the present moment. This calming effect allowed me, while still feeling safe in my own space, to have a better experience. As the imagery moved forward, I felt myself lifting out of my body. As scary as that may have sounded upon suggestion at the time it continued to feel quite comfortable, in fact, relieving. He suggested that we go to a place that was safe in our memory, that we might consider sacred. I remember my mind thinking of several different places and feeling sad, struggling, because I could not come up with a place in my mind where I had felt safe. When I began to relinquish my control and release myself to the imagery as he continued, suddenly and spontaneously I saw Jesus surrounded in bright light above me. This did not come from a significant religious belief, because at this point I had determined that I did not like the dogmas of many religions. However, I wanted to have a spiritual connection. As I saw Jesus in the very bright light above me, the light came down and surrounded me, pulling me upward into the arms of Jesus. As it did, I changed from the adult into a small baby and by the time I reached the arms of Jesus I was a baby in his arms. I felt safe, free, loved and wanted. That was truly a blessed experience for someone who struggled greatly with the belief that she did not know love and was unlovable. This touched into a part of my heart that was very well hidden from the world due to traumas, experiences and self-induced difficulties, allowing or creating a doorway into that hidden part of my heart where the deepest part of healing could really begin for me.

As private and professional healers, we are the gatekeeper’s to the place within the wounded where healing begins. Guided Imagery functions as a possible key to unlocking this gate.

PART ONE

Step by Step Suggestions in Developing and Implementing of Guided Imagery

CHAPTER 1

The Benefits of Guided Imagery

There have been many psychological, physical and treatment process benefits researched regarding the use of guided imagery. Several studies have been done which explore and identify these benefits, potential disadvantages and also the implication of the response