Authentic Counselling Training

Working with Imagery

[Under construction: 23 August 2004]

This document in all parts is copyright © Peter Hughes from the date of construction given above. Please feel free to make use of it for solely personal purposes. However, should you wish to use it for teaching, training, commercial or other purposes, you are required first to obtain my permission.

Four modes of processing

When we think, we are using cognitive processing to make rational sense of a situation. When we have emotions [affective processing], our ‘hearts’ may tell a very different story from our rational selves. We each have beliefs, prejudices and attitudes [conative processing]which it may be possible to explain, but not account fully, in terms of thought and feeling. We have images in our minds [imaginal processing], sometimes as memories or dreams, that behave in ways that often defy explanation of any kind. It is this latter realm that is addressed by imagery work. When a person considers an airport, they may think in terms of places to which they could travel from there (Paris, Amsterdam, New York), the kinds of planes that serve the airport (Boeing 747, Airbus A300, Piper Tomahawk), and arrival/departure timetables (BA1502 JFK to MAN 20:30). These matters tend to be a matter of fact that be addressed cognitively. The person might have a warm feeling, remembering past departures and arrivals, sadness at past partings, or fear of air travel. These feelings, although unique in circumstance, can be understood and addressed, say, with empathy. The person might hold beliefs about the airport such as the value of the jobs created by its presence, or about air travel such as all air travel is unacceptably dangerous. These beliefs can be understood, addressed, and contested if that is appropriate. However, when it comes to a person’s images, the range and variety of images they associate with airports may be great, and defy attempts to work with them other than in their own terms. When I think of Heathrow Airport, I think of my trip to watch Concordes land and take off; of the lost property office where I had to go to collect my confiscated pen knife; of the infra-red controlled flushing mechanism on the toilets; of being driven in a large black car beneath the runways when I was five years old. These associations may be too disjointed, and my sensitivity to them too fragile, for them to be worked with in manners appropriate to other styles [cognitive, conative, affective] of processing.

Working with Imagery pages: Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bibliography

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Peter Hughes: introduction

p.g.h@btinternet.com

This document in all parts is copyright © Peter Hughes from the date of construction given above.

These documents have taken me years of my own, unpaid time to perfect. Please feel free to make use of them for solely personal purposes. However, should you wish to use them for teaching, training, commercial or other purposes, you are required to ask me first.