Case Studies
The following case examples illustrate how mental imagery can be utilized in a variety of health concerns:Case Example #1
Sandra, a 43-year-old attorney, has been asthmatic since childhood. Despite using a variety of approaches, she has always felt enslaved to her disease. She has tried both ignoring her condition and catering to it. Though everything seems to help for a time, nothing gives her the release she seeks. She is tired of searching for a solution which constantly evades her. Feeling drained and confused, she seeks out a clinician trained in the use of mental imagery as a treatment of last resort.The therapist asks Sandra to close her eyes, turns her senses inward, and does some reverse breathing (exhaling first though her mouth, then inhaling through her nose). With this simple preparation, Sandra enters the world of her imagination where anything is possible – for here there are no rules, no diagnoses or prognoses, in fact, no limitations of any kind. Using an imagery exercise called “Liberation From Slavery,” Sandra sees and feels herself chained to her illness which appears to her as a large beast pressing her down, its foot planted firmly on her chest. Uncomfortable as this image may be, once she sees it she has the opportunity to acknowledge it (in effect to experience it), and to make a change. Using her imagination, she finds a key that unlocks the chains, breaks free of the beast, and releases herself from its power. Suddenly, the beast begins shrinking, while Sandra grows taller. As the chains fall away, the restriction and heaviness in her chest diminish. She feels lighter, her breathing becomes easier, and the sense of fear and powerlessness she had been feeling is replaced by hope and clarity.
When the imagery exercise is completed, the clinician as the guide, instructs her to breathe out and open her eyes. At this time, the therapist asks Sandra how she feels, and asks Sandra to describe her experience from the exercise in the present tense. She is encouraged to try this exercise (the prescribed dose), every day for at least seven days, up to 21 days, and to record her experiences (including night dreams) until her next appointment.
The benefits Sandra derives from doing this exercise are far reaching and immediate. Her imagery acts as a mirror that reveals her from the inside out. Instantaneously, from the imagery exercise she has learned truths about herself that until now she has overlooked, even denied. Indeed, she is stronger, “taller,” more powerful than she ever suspected. By freeing herself from the chains (which she sensed were her beliefs and fears about her illness), she becomes bigger than this disease, something she had always felt was all powerful, too much for her to handle. In changing the image, which she does by using the key to release herself, she has affected her beliefs, thoughts, and feelings in a positive, and liberating way. In doing this, she has gone beyond ordinary thinking where such things are “impossible,” and has become her own authority, the one who is ultimately in control of her choices in life (Shafer & Greenfield, 2002).
Next: Case Example # 2
