The
Academy for Guided Imagery
and its co-sponsoring organizations
present:
IMAGERY,
SUGGESTION, AND
MIND/BODY MEDICINE: 2008
AGI’s
20th Annual Conference Webcast
Premier
Webcast Dates: May 15-18, 2008
xx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
An Invitation For You:
You are cordially invited to join us for the Academy for
Guided Imagery’s 20th Annual Conference to be webcast on
May 15-18, 2008. Enrollment for this global international
webcast is open to anyone with internet access on any
platform (PC, Mac) at any speed (dial-up to DSL to T1), and
if you miss any of the initial presentations, they will be
available to you online for up to two months in our archive
files.
Our conference theme this year is “Imagery,
Suggestion, and Mind/Body Medicine: 2008” and we are delighted to have
a large number of co-sponsoring
organizations joining us for this historic
event. The conference will feature a distinguished international
faculty who will share their most
recent theories, thoughts, research, techniques,
strategies, and clinical findings about imagery,
visualization, suggestion, mind/body medicine, and
related topics.
Given our current national health care crisis, it is
critically important for health care clinicians,
researchers, educators, administrators, and consumers to
familiarize themselves with the latest evidence and
information about innovative treatment approaches that are
safer, more effective, and less costly for patients,
providers, and society. Preventive medicine and wellness
have also come of age, and there is now increasing interest
in techniques for gaining and maintaining optimal health
and longevity, especially if they emphasize greater
self-management and self-care.
While hardly new, one of the most creative and innovative
approaches that is emerging to meet these needs is guided
imagery. Imagery and suggestion have a long and varied
history in the healing traditions of humankind. When we
consider the vital roles played by placebos, religious
rituals, and positive expectant faith, it is clear that
imagery has long been a central and omnipresent component
of most healing experiences.
Imagery and suggestion are unconscious elements in most
health care communications that can affect the outcome of
many medical interventions and therapies in either helpful
or deleterious ways. Current scientific research findings
clearly
demonstrate that imagery can directly influence the
body's immune, endocrine, and autonomic nervous systems,
and that the power of imagination can stimulate a
variety of physiologic processes that accelerate and
support healing.
In short, there is probably no human problem that is not
affected to some degree in positive or negative ways by
suggestion, the mind, and its imagination. Thus, it's
important for all in the health care arena to learn how the
conscious uses of imagery can aid diagnosis and prognosis,
stimulate positive therapeutic change, enhance healing, and
empower patients to take better care of themselves.
Fortunately, with proper instruction, therapeutic guided
imagery and related techniques are easy to learn,
inexpensive to employ, and carry few, if any, negative side
effects or risks when properly utilized. They are therefore
an ideal adjunct to any other type of therapy.
During the Academy's 20th Annual Conference Webcast, many
of the originators and long-time researchers, teachers, and
practitioners of these modern-day approaches will share
their unique and extensive expertise, wisdom, and
experience. We sincerely hope you will join us for this
special event.
To
download a complete conference webcast brochure
(7.8MB),
click here.