Speaking with MD Magazine Allison Fine, a counselor with Counseling for Inner Balance in Seattle, discussed how guided imagery can help patients with serious illnesses handle stress and anxiety. When dealing with many illnesses, keeping stress under control is key to symptom management. Guided imagery can help patients reduce their stress levels. It can even help them deal with pain and improve the experience of taking medication. “It’s about finding a calm place to be before they take their medicine and imagining that the medication is going to be helpful to them and that it’s something that is very healing,” says Fine. Guided imagery can help clear anxiety, reduce stress, and can also promote internal healing. Guided imagery for disease and symptom relief often centers on imagining the body in a healthy state or imagining peaceful, calming situations. Fine suggests that people dealing with chronic disease find a therapist to help with guided imagery methods and practice. “These are things that therapists can teach patients in therapy sessions to help them cope…and give them a sense of control. Like there’s something they can do…”
The entire interview with Allison Fine is available from MD Magazine.
Learn more about guided imagery for disease and health at the Healing Waterfall.