Client Resources
multisensory Guided imagery
The following Guided Imagery meditations have been recorded with permission from 101 Trauma-Informed Interventions by Linda Curran (2013). Guided Imagery invokes a state of mind, body, and psyche that is greatly receptive to change. It has been shown to be helpful for anxiety, depression, trauma triggers, pain, high blood pressure, improving the immune system, and improving attention/concentration.
A container is an imagined resource that helps you to compartmentalize anything that is distressing, allowing you to be more present and focus on day-to-day life. It is not a suppression method, but rather a technique that allows you to attend to the distressing material only when you are ready and have the resources.
This guided imagery fosters the development of a safe place. It decreases sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system activation and increases parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) activation. Repeated listening reinforces the positive experience.
This guided imagery facilitates the development and internalization of an experience of care and nurturing.
Some of us have attachment wounds from early childhood. This guided imagery helps to develop and internalize an attachment figure who is emotionally attuned and nurturing.
This meditation helps to facilitate “urge surfing” - it promotes distress-tolerance and self-empowerment for those struggling with addiction.
Gnooooohhhhhhhhhhmmmmme
mindfulness meditations
You’ve most likely heard the term mindfulness or practiced some form of meditation - but why is it so beneficial when it comes to your mental and physical health? Your brain actually has the ability to change itself, which is called neuroplasticity. Brain imaging studies have shown that practicing mindfulness changes brain structure and function including improvements in depression, anxiety, stress, addictions, concentration, sleep, physical health, memory, and chronic pain (Burdick, 2013).
Neuroplasticity occurs with repetition over time - I usually recommend people start with a 5-15 minute meditation once daily to start to build new neuronal pathways in the brain, and then increase from there. The following meditations have been adapted from Mindfulness Skills Workbook for Clinicians & Clients by Debra Burdick (2013).
This meditation involves focusing your attention on one body part at a time - just noticing and accepting sensations as you become aware of them. The body scan helps to induce a deep state of relaxation and is great before bed or when you need take a break from stress in your day.
PMR helps to achieve a deep state of relaxation by systematically tightening and then relaxing the major muscle groups. With continued PMR practice, it becomes easy to relax the body on demand by taking 2 or 3 deep breaths and just remembering how you felt during this meditation.
Studies show that when you are imagining or visualizing an event, your body reacts the same as it does to an actual event in the present. A remembered wellness meditation taps into the power of your imagination to create wellness here and now by remembering a time in your life when you truly felt well. It may help to make a list of such memories to draw from before starting the meditation. Rotate through memories with repeated practice.