Presenters: David Bresler, PhD, LAc, and Martin Rossman, MD
Objectives: Participants completing this presentation will be able to:xxx
- Explain why IGIsm is more powerful, effective, and efficient than other suggestive techniques.
- Utilize the most effective techniques for initiating Imagery Dialogue.
- Utilize Imagery Dialogue to explore the meaning of a symptom and to empower and enhance the body’s intrinsic healing systems.
Description: Interactive Guided Imagerysm (IGIsm) is an interactive, permissive, client-centered approach to clinical guided imagery aimed at evoking inner healing resources and enabling the client patient to develop greater self-awareness, increased autonomy and an enhanced sense of personal empowerment.
IGIsm is eclectic, holistic, humanistic and non-dogmatic, incorporating skills and approaches from hypnosis, Jungian psychology, psychosynthesis, Gestalt therapy, self-actualization and ego-state psychology. IGIsm is much more than simply having a patient listen to a predetermined script. It is a powerful modality for connecting with the deeper wellsprings of what is true for them at cognitive, affective, and somatic levels.
The guide’s role in this process is not to provide “better” images for the client, but to facilitate an enhanced awareness of the unconscious imagery the client/patient already has, and to help the client learn to meaningfully and effectively interact with this process. For example, a patient can be asked to close his eyes and allow an image to form that represents the experience of his problem. The patient may then have an imaginary dialogue with the image to explore its meaning and relevance to the problem or issue.
These images can provide information not only about the problem or illness, but also about the patient’s beliefs, attitudes, hopes, expectations, and fears, their ability to cope with the problem or heal from the illness, and the potential effectiveness of the recommended treatment plan.
This pre-conference workshop, An Overview of Interactive Guided Imagerysm, contains original lectures by Drs. David Bresler and Marty Rossman, the creators and developers of IGIsm, excerpted from the Academy’s Professional Certification Training Program. It includes an overview of IGIsm, how it works, how it differs from other suggestive techniques, the most effective strategies for establishing imagery dialogue, how to maximize success, and how IGIsm can be applied in medicine, nursing, allied health care fields, health psychology, psychotherapy, counseling, and coaching.