The Use of Guided Imagery as an Adjunct To Medical Diagnosis and Treatment

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Therapeutic guided imagery offers a variety of opportunities for a patient to gather information about unconscious, physical processes within his or her physical body, and to alter them. These methods are of particular use as an extension of traditional medical approaches. They are useful for both diagnosis and treatment. This article presents some thoughts about the nature of the imagery process, and examples of imagery treatment methods for physical illness drawn from the authors' clinical practice. The rationale for the effect of imagery is rooted in psychophysiological research which suggests that the nervous system can be contacted by two fundamentally different types of language: metaphoric and verbal. These languages correlate with brain hemispheres. Imagery is primarily a right brain, metaphorical method of communication, which is linked directly with the unconscious and the physical functions of the nervous system. This article offers examples of the use of imagery to obtain diagnostic information, for relaxation, to make positive suggestions to alter physical processes, and in the discovery of an inner adviser.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: