Emotional imagery technique: what it is and how it applies to anxiety

The emotional imagery technique aims to reduce anxiety that provoke certain situations or stimuli. It is a behavioral technique, belonging to systematic desensitization, which aims to associate an anxious stimulus with a pleasant response.

In it, a pleasant scene is imagined, which causes the same sensation, this response being incompatible with a state of anxiety. In this article we will know what it consists of, who it is addressed to and how it is applied.

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Emotional Imagination Technique: What is it?

The emotional imagery technique is a behavioral technique, typical of classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, stimuli cause automatic responses, and the idea is to associate these stimuli with a series of responses from the patient.

More specifically, the emotional imagination technique is included within the systematic desensitization techniques (it is a specific type of it).

It can be used in isolation or as part of a broader therapy. It is the case of

REBT (Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy) by Albert Ellis, who includes this technique as part of his therapy.

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A type of systematic desensitization

For its part, systematic desensitization (SD) consists of a procedure in which the patient confronts the phobic or anxious stimulus through a response incompatible with anxiety, usually relaxation (although it can also be a pleasant state or a pleasant image, as in the imagery technique emotional).

How does it work?

What is done with the emotional imagery technique is to associate an anxious stimulus that causes us anxiety and discomfort, with another stimulus of a pleasant nature, specifically, a pleasant image or scene imagined. This image or scene generates in the subject a state of calm which is incompatible with anxiety.

In this way, when associating these two stimuli (and if it is done effectively), what happens is that when the stimulus that generates anxiety, the person is able to automatically imagine a pleasant scene that reduces or completely eliminates the state of anxiety initial.

To whom?

Thus, the emotional imagination technique can be applied to children, adolescents and adults. In fact, in school contexts it is easy to apply due to its simplicity of application.

For example, a child who is anxious about going to the dentist may imagine his favorite cartoon character as he goes to the dentist. dentist, or even during the intervention, to gradually alleviate the anxious symptoms (since they are incompatible with a pleasant state).

However, although it may seem like a simple technique, in order for it to work, it must be practiced systematically and in different contexts.

Application

The application of the emotional imagination technique is carried out as follows, through these steps:

1. Determine anxious stimuli

The first step is to determine the stimuli or situations that evoke anxiety, fear or fear.

2. Choose the nice image

Subsequently, they must be chosen the images or scenes (or only one) that generate in the patient a pleasant and calm state. In the case of children, for example, it can be her favorite fictional character.

3. Imagine

The third step of the emotional imagery technique involves the patient taking action, and imagining, with eyes closed and with all possible details, the previously chosen pleasant image or scene. In the case of children, and if a fictional or cartoon character has been chosen, it is a good idea for the child to establish a kind of "relationship" with him.

The capacity for imagination varies from one person to another (some may have it very good and others not), but it can always be learned, practiced and improved. Performing training exercises to develop it can be very useful.

4. Introduce the phobic stimulus

In the last step, the stimuli that generate fear or anxiety will be progressively introduced, so that little by little the patient associates them with the pleasant image. The ultimate goal is to eliminate anxiety, and that the person can imagine the pleasant situation automatically when facing (to) or the phobic situation appears.

5. Elimination of anxiety

Finally, as the practice of, on the one hand, imagining the pleasant situation and, on the other, associating the phobic stimulus with the pleasant one, it will be possible to strengthen said association and therefore eliminate the anxiety generated by the situation.

The role of emotions

But why is the technique useful? From psychology it is known that emotions are responses that arise as a consequence of certain events, whether external (from the environment) or internal (from the internal "world" of the person).

That is, they can appear due to things that happen outside (for example, the death of a loved one), or due to things that happen "inside" (for example, thinking about the bad relationship we had with this person deceased). That is, in the second case, thoughts, reflections, ideas that pass through our mind, etc. are included.

In this way, what the emotional imagination technique aims to do is provide us with the tools that allow us to manage negative thoughts that usually cause the negative emotions or sensations that we feel, such as anxiety or fear.

Bibliographic references:

• Horse. (2002). Manual for the cognitive-behavioral treatment of psychological disorders. Vol. 1 and 2. Madrid. XXI century.
• diesing v. (2004). Pragmatic Methods in Psychotherapy, suggestion, hypnosis, autogenic training in child psychotherapy. Treatise on Child Psychotherapy. In: Bierman.
• Vallejo, M.A. (2012). Behavior Therapy Manual. Volume I and II. Madrid: Dykinson.