Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is a therapy technique that, unlike traditional re-living techniques, focuses less on exposure and verbal challenging of cognitions and instead encourages patients to directly transform the intrusive imagery to change the depicted course of events in a more desired direction. However, a comprehensive account of how and in what circumstances ImRs brings about therapeutic change is required if treatment is to be optimised, and this is yet to be developed. The present study reports on the development of a coding scheme of ImRs psychotherapy elements identified in the literature as potential ImRs mechanisms. The codes were assessed in relation to short-term outcomes of 27 individuals undergoing ImRs for post-traumatic stress disorder. The timing of the change in the image, degree of activation of the new image and associated cognitive, emotional and physiological processes, self-guided rescripting, rescript believability, narrative coherence and cognitive and emotional shift were identified as being related to symptom change and so are potentially important factors for the re-scripting process.

The majority of psychotherapeutic approaches work on the basis that addressing what is "wrong" with individuals will facilitate recovery. Positive therapies adopt a different approach, demonstrating that adaptive change can be achieved by addressing wellbeing and what is "right". Unfortunately, research indicates the effectiveness of positive psychotherapeutic interventions is sometimes suboptimal, perhaps due to their reliance on written and talk-based strategies. Drawing on evidence from leading theories of cognition (e.g. Interacting Cognitive Subsystems and Dual Representation theories), the present paper suggests that therapeutic effects positive interventions might be augmented through greater use of experiential methods, namely 'chairwork'. The practice-focused paper sets out the PPIs in their current form and describes how chairwork could be applied in these areas of well-being, including gratitude, personal strengths, forgiveness, benefit-finding, and existential meaning. Research is needed to establish the efficacy of experiential PPIs and to determine whether are advantageous compared to traditional positive interventions.