From Ancient Roots To Todays Spas Simply defined, guided imagery, or visualization, is a process incorporating verbal cues that teaches how to use your imagination to activate healing responses in your body.1 (For a quick demonstration of the physiological response guided imagery can create, close your eyes and imagine taking a bite out of a big, juicy lemon. See it, smell it, and taste its sourness. Do you feel your mouth watering in response to the thought?) Massage practitioners and energy workers have incorporated guided imagery into their work for years, while psychotherapists have used the technique for more than a century. In fact, guided imagery has ancient roots. From Aristotle and Hippocrates to Freud, guided imagery has filled several roles in its long and varied history. Its well established in Native American and other indigenous traditions, as well as having roots in Hinduism and Judeo-Christian religions and traditional Chinese medicine.2 Guided imagery has been shown to produce a variety of health benefits, including fewer side effects from cancer treatments, better stress management, reduced frequency of headaches, as well as diminished levels of anxiety and fear before and after surgical procedures, a reduced need for pain medications, and faster recovery rates.3 Its because of those benefits that guided imagery is increasingly showing up in hospitals and clinics. For example, the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center offers a healing program to patients and families that focuses on positive emotions and expectations. Patients are encouraged to manage their pain through guided imagery, massage, and breathing exercises. Part of the centers protocol for surgical patients is to have them listen to a guided imagery CD twice a day, both before and after surgery. The North Mississippi Medical Centers Cancer Center began offering free guided imagery and massage to its cancer patients in 2004. And nurses from the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia say that using guided imagery and massage therapy on their patients has been demonstrated to lower blood pressure, breathing rates, and heart rates.4 Known largely for its relaxation effects, guided imagery is now finding its way into the spa, as these facilities search for more treatment options that will marry well with their renewed focus on client wellness.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 14:27:06 +0000
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