Body image changes during guided affective imagery.

Abstract

An unusual body experience, the sensation of his whole body expanding to four or five times its normal size, occurred spontaneously in a forty-two year old attorney after five months of psychotherapy, using the technique of Guided Affective Imagery. Having entered therapy with the complaint of the absence of feelings, the attorney was able, through guided affective imagery, to experience emotions, with complex richness and variety. The use of guided affective imagery emphasizes the point that the potential for growth lies basically within the patient, the therapeutic use of imagery builds upon the view that the dream or daydreams is not merely a wish-fulfillment, but a trial act, an attempt to deal with the dynamics and issues, a beginning of therapeutic action. His body image experience expresses the meanings he is living, his increasing awareness of a rich emotional Ufe, and the enlargement of his ego, his own personal growth. The Case DescriptionAn unusual body experience, the sensation of his whole body expanding to four or five times its normal size, occurred spontaneously in a forty-two year old attorney after five months of psychotherapy, using the technique of guided affective imagery. This body experience, long forgotten, had occurred originally at age ten.The patient, an attorney with an advanced degrees, entered psychotherapy with a chief complaint of being unable to experience any emotions. He had been married twice and was currently separated from his wife. He states that any feelings he did have were given him by his wife, whom he described as lively, over-emotional person. She provided him with This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.