Using the techniques of imagery, total body wellness can be achieved without prescriptive medicine. With this comprehensive, user-friendly primer, readers will learn just what guided sensory imagery is and how to create powerful images in the mind that direct the body to heal--both emotionally and physically.

If you or someone you love has suffered a traumatic event, you know the devastating impact it can have on your life and your spirit. Life-threatening accidents, illnesses, assaults, abusive relationships—or a tragedy like 9/11—all can leave deep emotional wounds that persist long after physical scars have healed. Survivors become “invisible heroes,” courageously struggling to lead normal lives in spite of symptoms so baffling and disturbing that they sometimes doubt their own sanity. Now there is new hope for the millions affected by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Drawing on more than thirty years’ experience as a therapist and on the most recent cutting-edge research, Belleruth Naparstek presents a clinically proven program for recovery using the potent tool of guided imagery. She reveals how guided imagery goes straight to the right side of the brain, where it impacts the nonverbal wiring of the nervous system itself, the key to alleviating suffering. Filled with the voices of real trauma survivors and therapists whose lives and work have been changed by this approach, Invisible Heroes offers: • New understanding of the physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral effects of PTSD, who is most susceptible, and why symptoms can get worse rather than better with time • Important insights into how the brain and body respond to trauma, why conventional talk therapy can actually impede recovery, and why the nonverbal, image-based right brain is crucial to healing • A step-by-step program with more than twenty scripts for guided-imagery exercises tailored to the three stages of recovery, from immediate relief of anxiety attacks, flashbacks, nightmares, and insomnia, to freedom from depression and isolation, to renewed engagement with life • A helpful guide to the best of the new imagery-based therapies, and how to incorporate them into an overall recovery plan Belleruth Naparstek concludes with the inspiring words of survivors who have found their way back to peace, purpose, and a deep joy in living. Her compassionate, groundbreaking book can lead you and those in your care to the same renewal and healing.

Emphasizes the transformative power of creative visualization techniques to help those suffering from trauma, crisis, PTSD, addiction, emotional upheaval, grief, conflict, and illness through the healing process, explaining how to use the challenges of life as an opportunity for growth and self-realization. Original.

Using methods he has taught to thousands of patients and health-care professionals since 1972, Dr. Rossman teaches a step-by-step method of harnessing the power of the mind to further one's own physical healing. Versatile and easy-to-learn, mental imagery as explained by Dr. Rossman, can be used to: Achieve deep physiological relaxation Stimulate healing responses in the body Create an inner dialogue and gain a better understanding of one's health Improve health and general well-being. The idea of guided imagery as an aid to the healing process is a recognized key component in the health care equation of mind/body healing. Starting with a discussion of the nature of imagery and how it works, Dr. Rossman presents specific scripts that can be used directly. Scripts include: Exploring Your Imagery Abilities, Basic Relaxation Skills, Deepening Techniques, Your Healing Imagery, Meeting Your Inner Advisor, Symptoms are Symbols, Grounding Your Insight, Learning From Your Resistance, and Your Image of Wellness. A practical and helpful book not only for those facing specific health problems but for all who wish to use the imagination for a wide range of individual purposes unlimited to health situations.

When you have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), it can feel like your own mind is at war with itself. Instead of having productive and positive thoughts, you rehash the same worries and fears over and over again until they become unbearable. Did you really remember to lock the front door? What if you were to hit someone while driving your car? You may find yourself engaging in exhaustive rituals to keep these thoughts at bay. But soon, the doubts come back with a vengeance. Coping with OCD offers a simple and engaging program that can help anyone with mild to moderate OCD get started on the road to recovery. This book begins with a crash course on what OCD is-and what it is not. You'll learn a proven, three-part program for recovery that uses safe and gradual exposure to distressing thoughts and situations, mindfulness practice, and techniques to restructure thinking. Additional chapters address how families can help, dealing with shame and blame, depression, and maintaining progress. The book also includes a helpful list of resources for further reading and additional support.