Guided Imagery: How a little daydreaming may help you live longer and healthier

Guided Imagery

Train your brain to improve your health. While that may sound funny, it's a powerful technique you can use to heal your body and even prevent the onset of disease. It's called Guided Imagery and its a remarkable trend in holistic medicine.

Who Can Benefit?

Research has proven Guided Imagery to be helpful with the following and more:

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Lower blood pressure
Reduce cholesterol
Reduce anxiety and depression
Speed up healing from cuts, fractures and burns
Enhance immune function
Cancer patient support
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Reduce chronic pain and fibromyalgia
Reduce length of hospital stay in post operative patients
Reduce allergic reactions

What Is Guided Imagery?

Guided Imagery is a form of deliberate daydreaming; a mixture of guided hypnosis and guided meditation. It utilizes both the power of one's imagination and suggestive words and phrases to evoke one's memory and multi-sensory fantasies for the purpose of healing or the development of a management strategy in the face of adverse situations.

A meditative styled hypnosis, guided imagery is a gentle yet powerful practice which is easy for most people to do and produces very effective results. The only prerequisite is motivation.

How Does Guided Imagery Work?

Imagery works by sending healing images straight into one's brain and nervous system by way of primitive, sensory pathways. Because the route of travel of these messages goes to the right brain (non dominant brain) which feels, perceives and senses as opposed to the left brain which is busy judging, deciding and analyzing, healing imagery can be a very effective intervention tool for many diseases, stress and traumatic conditions.

Guided Imagery easily supports other ongoing therapies and also provides the patient his own powerful tool which grows more effective with continued use.

Who Provides The Guided Imagery?

At the Center, guided imagery is provided by Ronald Stram, MD (bio) who is trained in Guided Imagery through the Integrative Medicine Fellowship program at the University of Arizona, and by psychotherapist, author and guided imagery innovator, Belleruth Naparstek.

What's A Guided Imagery Session Like?

Initially, you will meet with Dr. Stram to discuss the personal issues you wish to overcome using Guided Imagery before the actual session occurs.

The one-hour session takes place in one of our warm and tranquil rooms where you can chose between sitting in a comfortable chair or lying down on a soft massage table. Dr. Stram dims the lights and sits nearby.

Carefully selected music serves to enhance the imagery work by subtly falling into the background of the therapeutic session while at the same time promoting momentum for it.

Dr. Stram begins meditation and breath work to prepare you for a relaxed state. The first part of your session involves discovering your sacred place from which you can feel utter safety. This sacred place can be from a real or imagined memory. From this inner protective sanctuary, healing images are evoked.

With Dr. Stram's guidance, these powerful healing images interact with the symptom image to reduce or eliminate its effects. The second and third sessions further develop and attune these skills for continued independent use.

A professional CD recorded by Dr. Stram may be purchased to enhance and support the client’s continued practice and ongoing well-being.

Our Special Team Approach To Your Health Care

At the Center, you also have the special opportunity to consult with complementary practitioners and medical doctors about your health concerns and the progress you are making.

We take great pride in our staff's special team consulting approach to the care of our patients, giving you the best that Integrative Medicine has to offer.