In a Body of Wonder, Episode 8, interview during Covid with Andrew Weil, M.D. and Victoria Maizes, M.D., of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, Belleruth Naparstek, licensed social worker and psychotherapist, healthjourneys.com, discussed guided imagery.

What is guided imagery ? “It is a lazy person’s meditation. It is hypnosis. It is a deliberate directed daydreaming aiming to use imagination and sensory memory to envision and encapsulate a successful experience of something a person is seeking.”

“It is not mindfulness which has a neutral attitude toward outcome. When a person is so stressed, under the gun, and using every ounce of bandwidth to get through the day, it is not the time to acquire the the exquisite discipline and practice of mindfulness which takes effort and will not immediately reward the person.”

It is effective for anxious persons, athletes, injury recovery, pre-surgical patients, traumatized individuals, stroke survivors, veterans because it soothes.

Belleruth is very happy she stayed alive this long to see the benefits of the work she began when she purchased a tape, “Win at Sports,” at the request of her flat-footed twelve-year-old son who wanted to improve his running. After three weeks, he was so successful that she decided to listen to it and then was convinced. She started to make tapes for her patients. Living in Cleveland on a street with medical professionals for neighbors, she was supported.

An audio recording or one-on-one with a practitioner or in a group is possible.

Although resistant to short sessions, Belleruth concedes that five or ten minutes is effective.

Victoria Maizes recommends it because it is accessible, free, fun and, most importantly, it works !

Andrew Weil advocates it amid the materialistic dogma that insists that mind/body medicine is irrelevant.

Belleruth adds that nurses and pastors provide the most referrals, but that physicians are changing their mindsets as blood tests, functional MRIs, and saliva tests have proven the change in biochemistry of the participants.

Teenagers respond extremely well, but it may not serve some very traumatized people.