Hypnosis Skills For Everyone: Imagery & Visualization
What can we see with our interval vision?
Hypnotherapy can be a very powerful tool for reducing distress, improving physical & mental wellbeing, and moving through obstacles with more ease. It’s not magic and there are a number of skills that are used in hypnotherapy/hypnosis that can be easily learned and used by anyone on their own for their own wellbeing.
Imagery in Maryland Hypnotherapy
Imagery and visualization are frequently used in hypnotherapy as a way of engaging the mind, the body and the senses in the experience. But it’s not only hypnotherapists that use imagery and visualization—this is a skill and tool that can be used by anyone. Many athletes and performers of all kinds use visualization and mental rehearsal to improve their performance. Folks that are anxious about an upcoming event (taking a flight, giving a presentation, going to a medical appointment), can use visualization to practice seeing themselves calmly succeeding at the task in front of them, thereby reducing anticipatory anxiety and creating some positive expectations about what is to come.
Trying It On For Size
The first time that I had a powerful experience with the positive outcomes of using imagery & visualization happened when I was in college. I was taking a directing class in the theatre department and I came into class not looking well. When the teacher asked if I was ok, I was honest and said that I had incredibly painful cramps and was really struggling with the discomfort and pain. In a generous move, she made the decision to take the first 10-15 minutes of class as a learning experience for everyone and led a guided imagery experience for everyone to help manage pain and discomfort. Since it was a theatre studio and we were all used to using the floor as needed, we all laid down on the floor and closed our eyes. About 10-15 minutes later, when she was done leading the exercise, I opened my eyes and was absolutely astonished in the massive reduction of my pain and discomfort and was able to more easily go through my whole day. It was a lightbulb moment for me in recognizing the power of our own minds to impact our bodies and physical experiences and sent me on a life long journey of exploring that topic.
How did she do it?
After we laid down on the floor, the teacher invited us to close our eyes, focus on slowing down our breathing, and let our bodies get relaxed and heavy as the floor supported us (Regular blog readers will recognize some of these components of my Mindfulness Skills for Anxiety Treatment blog series. Want to catch up on these? Head back to the Blog for entries in this series). She was helping me with cramps but invited anyone that had some discomfort in their body (that’s a lot of us), to imagine that area of pain and discomfort as a knotted tangle of red light—like red tubes of neon lights—hot and twisted. As I focused on this, it felt awful! Painful, hot, uncomfortable. All through my lower abdomen. Once I got really uncomfortable, she invited us to imagine a tiny pinprick of intense, brilliant white light. I’m old enough to remember turning off televisions and seeing the picture dwindle into a small dot of light that would fade away. If you are not old enough to remember this, trust me, it was a thing, but any concept of a dot of light would do.
The teacher gave suggestions to imagine that dot of white light staying tiny, but getting even brighter and brighter. When it was almost blindingly bright, she invited us to visualize putting it right in the most tangled up, knotted part of that red pain. Have you ever had to untangle a really messed up necklace chain, or bit of yarn/string or rope? Every time I have to do that, I put the chain or yarn on the table and then use something with a very fine point (an opened paper clip, or a pin, or a knitting needle, or a really sharp pencil) to get right into the knot. It helps give a little space in the knot so I can see where I can begin to start unraveling it. The visualization exercise for pain was like that. That tiny dot of bright white light went right into the most intense spot of that tangled mess of red, and I visualized that with every inhale that it grew a little bigger, and on every exhale, the red lines of light loosened, become less tangled. She guided us through this for several minutes, just using every breath to visualize the unfolding of this knotted mess of red lines of light, untangling, becoming less intensely red as the white light took up more and more space in my abdomen. The red eventually just fading away, until there was none left. No tangles, no red.
It might sound bonkers, but it worked!!!! Like I said, I got up afterwards and felt so much better. It was amazing. I used that same technique on my own many, many times over the years since then (maybe one of the most enduring, practical things I learned in college) and offered it to friends when they were dealing with bad cramps.
The Shape Of things to come for Hypnotherapy in Maryland
When I started to learn clinical hypnosis in my professional life, many years after having this experience in school, I was astonished to find that this scenario (imagining the pain as one color, being soothed and changed by another color) is a very common suggestion for helping with pain in hypnosis. Plus there were so many variations on the idea that could be adapted for pain and other conditions and concerns. When creating a hypnotherapy treatment session for someone, one common approach is to create an image of the presenting problem that the client can really relate to, and then to heal that image through suggestion, visualization and other skills. It’s incredibly powerful because it’s a way of speaking to the direct experience of the body, and not to the thinking, rational part of the brain. The rational part of the brain is pretty much the last to know about pain or dysregulation in the body.
Everyone can use visualization & imagery
Using imagery and visualization while in hypnosis can be very powerful. But you don’t have to wait to be in a state of trance to get some benefit from this. Everyone can use these tools. Yoga instructors often invite people to imagine roots growing down from their feet, into the floor and into the Earth, to create more of a sense of groundedness, in preparation for balancing poses. If you’ve ever tried to learn how to tie a bowline knot (rock climbers, boaters and scouts may relate to this one), a common way of remembering how to do it is to use imagery to visualize, “The rabbit comes out of his hole, runs around the tree, and goes back down the hole” as a method for remembering what to do with the rope. Many people help get themselves to sleep by visualizing themselves walking through a place they know and love well, observing all the details along the way. Feel free to try the visualization exercise for pain and discomfort described above. Stay curious about how you can use this creative tool of visualization that we can all access to support yourself in your daily life.
A free consultation for Hypnotherapy in Maryland
I hope this gives you another tool in your inner toolbox to help reduce distress and find more ease and joy in life. More information about other ways to use hypnotherapy, for support and success, can be found on my hypnotherapy page. I see folks in my office in College Park and online throughout Maryland. If you are curious to see if hypnotherapy can help you and want to explore this more, feel free to contact me for a free 15 minute phone consultation. More information about my services as a Maryland therapist can be found throughout this website.
