FAQs
and Media Information Fact Sheet
If you are associated with the
media and require additional assistance or information,
please contact us at 800-726-2070 or email us at
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WHAT IS THE
ACADEMY FOR GUIDED IMAGERY?
The Academy for Guided Imagery designs, develops,
researches, and then offers post-graduate training in
guided imagery and mind/body medicine for health care
clinicians, coaches, educators, lay practitioners, and the
public. As the culmination of more than 30 years of
clinical research, practice, and exploration in the use of
the human imagination in the healing process, it is the
preeminent organization for teaching health professionals
and others how to work directly with the imagery process.
WHAT IS THE
ACADEMY'S MISSION?
• To further our understanding of the imagery process in
human life and development by exploring innovative
mind/body applications in health care for individuals,
their families, their workplace, and their communities.
• To provide systematic, high quality training and guidance
for health care clinicians, coaches, and educators who
desire to learn how to access and use the power of imagery
and the mind/body connection for healing.
• To network our professional community in a supportive,
creative and enjoyable way.
WHERE IS IT
LOCATED?
The Academy's research and corporate offices are located at
30765 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 359, Malibu, CA 90265,
and at 10780 Santa Monica Blvd, Suite 290, Los Angeles, CA
90025. Phone is 800-726-2070. FAX is 800-727-2070.
WHAT DOES IT
DO?
The Academy for Guided Imagery created, developed,
researches, and teaches Interactive Guided
Imagerysm, a clinical process
incorporating a unique set of imagery based tools for
practicing health care professionals to use with their
patients and clients. The interactive nature of this
process allows health professionals to evoke the innate
insight, motivation, and resources needed for change
that can arise directly from within their patients.
WHEN DID IT
START?
The Academy was formed in California in 1989 by the
professional working partnership of David E. Bresler,
PhD, LAc, a health psychologist and
acupuncturist, and Martin L. Rossman,
M.D.,
a medical doctor. Since that time, the Academy has
taught more than 10,000 psychologists, physicians,
nurses, social workers, counselors, and other health
professionals, coaches, and educators in its live
workshops and home study courses.
WHY IS IMAGERY
IMPORTANT?
Imagery is the predominant language of the human
unconscious, and as such, it plays a major role in almost
all therapeutic interactions. Guided Imagery is a valuable
therapeutic approach that allows practitioners to teach
their patients/clients to skillfully use their imagination
to evoke relaxation rather than anxiety, problem-solving
rather than helplessness, and self-confidence rather than
self-denigration. This process opens the door to a
remarkable world of perception, meaning, affect, insight,
and growth that empowers health professionals and their
patients/clients in their mutual search for healing.
WHAT IS
INTERACTIVE GUIDED IMAGERYsm?
Interactive Guided
Imagerysm utilizes a unique set of imagery based
tools that allow practitioners to evoke the insight,
motivation, and resources needed for change directly from
within their clients. IGIsm incorporates
innovative principles and techniques from conventional and
Ericksonian hypnosis, Neurolinguistic Programming,
psychosynthesis, and Jungian active imagination, and adds a
unique interactive component that transforms the
therapeutic relationship into one of supportive
collaboration and successful self-actualization.
HOW
DOES IGIsm WORK?
Interactive Guided Imagerysm works by helping
the patient/client to use the powers of their own
imagination to explore a particular area of concern,
illness, or interest. The process invites an image or
images to form that in some way hold significant
information and/or knowledge about the area of concern
being addressed. By dialoguing with these images, both the
guide and the patient/client can connect with a powerful
source of inner wisdom that leads to new insights that
facilitate the healing process.
Since these images are drawn directly from the imagination
of the patient/client rather than a script read by the
guide, they are deeply personal and meaningful. It is
through the gentle process of interacting with these
personal images that patients/clients often reach a broader
understanding regarding the meaning of their situation.
Through this deeper understanding and by grounding these
insights through personal action, the empowered
patients/clients are able to significantly participate in
their own healing process.
WHY IS THERE A
"SM" AFTER THE TERMS, "INTERACTIVE GUIDED
IMAGERYsm" AND
IGIsm?
The
service mark, or "SM" in superscript format, is applied
following the terms "IGIsm", "Interactive
Imagerysm" and "Interactive Guided
Imagerysm" and "Interactive Imagery
Guidesm." The service mark denotes that
IGIsm is a legally registered process, that
these terms are owned by the Academy for Guided Imagery,
and that "sm" must be applied when referring to or using
these terms.
The use of this service mark indicates that this specific
way of using imagery interactively is clearly defined and
differentiated from other approaches to guided imagery. No
individual or organization can legally use these terms
without the express written permission of the Academy for
Guided Imagery. Individuals must be trained in the
IGIsm process to represent they are using it,
and those who have been trained by AGI must include the
service mark whenever they use these terms in print.
The service mark provides patients and clients with the
assurance that Certified IGIsm practitioners
have been properly trained and evaluated by the Academy and
that they have demonstrated their competence by meeting or
exceeding the Certification criteria we have established.
WHAT WOULD A
TYPICAL FIRST-TIME SESSION WITH A CERTIFIED INTERACTIVE
IMAGERY GUIDEsm BE LIKE?
In what is called "Foresight", the client/patient and guide
discuss their goals in using Interactive Guided
Imagerysm - relaxation, symptom relief, insight,
problem-solving, conflict resolution, etc. The guide
assesses the appropriateness of using various
IGIsm techniques and then moves into "Insight,"
the imagery aspect of this process.
This usually begins with a basic relaxation exercise that
enables the client/patient to focus inside, and then to
imagine being in a beautiful, peaceful, safe, healing place
in which they can work. They are then asked to allow an
image to form of the area of concern, illness or interest.
As an image forms, the guide facilitates an interactive
communication between the client/patient and the image to
help clarify and offer insights into the situation. An wise
and caring imaginary Inner Advisor may also be invited to
help facilitate this process.
After interacting with the image for an appropriate period
of time, the guide gradually assists the client/patient
back to ordinary awareness in "Hindsight". The session
lasts about 50 - 90 minutes. The client/patient then has an
opportunity to de-brief the session with the guide.
WHAT IS THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VISUALIZATION, GUIDED IMAGERY, HYPNOSIS,
NLP, AND INTERACTIVE GUIDED
IMAGERYsm?
There
is considerable overlap and some major differences between
these approaches.
Visualization is a form of
imagery that usually utilizes the imagination through
scripted images. The guide reads a prepared script as a
means of helping the client/patient to imagine a particular
desired outcome, such as pain relief.
This type of visualization is also common with
Neurolinguistic Programming, or NLP, as a way to reprogram
or re-frame a particular situation. With NLP, an individual
attempts to route and re-route the neural connections that
make up a particular behavior or pattern in hopes of
altering the outcome. There is an emphasis on the
practitioner analyzing and understanding the client's
patterns and creating an alternative strategy.
Hypnosis often requires an individual to enter a type of
hypnotic state of focused, concentrated attention that
allows suggestions to enter the unconscious mind. It is
mainly through suggestive interaction that individual
change can occur, and it includes an expectation on the
part of both client and hypnotist that the hypnotist will
provide the solution to the problem.
Guided imagery is a way to access the images of the
unconscious mind to help resolve problems and to gain
greater insights and deeper understanding regarding a
specific illness, issue, or situation. It may or may not be
interactive and it usually uses prompted or suggested
imagery. Again, the guide is often expected to provide
"better imagesä for the client.
Interactive Guided Imagerysm is an innovative
process that includes all the features of guided imagery
and adds an element of interactivity to the mix.
IGIsm works directly with the images that arise
from an individual's own imagination and inner wisdom. This
provides a unique window of personal exploration into the
inner workings of one's own healing processes. With
IGIsm, the Interactive Imagery
Guidesm assists the client in learning to access
and utilize these insights and solutions in their own
unconscious, which is significantly more personal,
specific, and empowering to the client/patient.
WHAT CAN
IGIsm BE USED TO TREAT? STRESS? CANCER? HEART
DISEASE? ADDICTIONS?
Interactive Guided
Imagerysm is a process that can be useful for
nearly all health concerns. It is an effective tool for
engaging the patient/client in their own healing process,
and for engendering a greater sense of self-efficacy.
IGIsm is an approach that is empowering not only
to the client, but to the practitioner, as well, and one
that enhances the power of healing in the therapeutic
encounter.
It is more accurate to say that IGIsm treats
people, not problems, and by empowering people, helps them
deal more effectively with any problem.
People with health issues ranging from musculo-skeletal
problems to major addictions and life-threatening illnesses
have utilized IGIsm to relieve symptoms, find
meaning, stimulate healing, and make the critical lifestyle
changes that support and encourage healing.
CASE
STUDIES
Click here to review
several case
studies illustrating the clinical application of
Interactive
Guided Imagerysm.
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