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GUIDED AFFECTIVE IMAGERY
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Guided Affective Imagery (GAI) is an effective therapeutic approach that can help you tap into and develop your psychological self-healing capacities. It includes a guided imagination that is followed by drawing and reflection. Through this process, you can gain insights, process emotions, discover your individual resources and find our own paths to resolution. You don’t need any artistic skills to do this therapy. There is no predefined storyline in GAI. The imagination journey is wholly your own, and I guide you through it with open questions and suggestions or support when needed. Everything that comes up during the imagination is welcome. GAI, also known as Catathym Imaginative Psychotherapy, is rooted in depth psychology (psychodynamic therapy) and was developed by doctor & psychotherapist Hanscarl Leuner as a therapeutic approach he originally named in German ‘Katathymes Bilderleben’ (‘Katathym’ in Greek means following the affect, ‘Bilderleben’ in German means imagery-experience). You can read more about GAI here. Contact me if you have any questions or would like to book a free introductory call and get to know each other. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Online Guided Affective Imagery is also possible. |
When can guided affective imagery be helpful?
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Guided Affective Imagery is a gentle, yet effective therapeutic process. It can help both in dealing with current challenging situations in your life and in going deeper into yourself and exploring unresolved inner conflicts. For example, when you feel stuck in life and you don’t know the way out, when you need to process emotions and past or present difficult experiences, or if you want to understand and get to know yourself better, and to find solutions and resources within yourself. GAI can also be beneficial if you are dealing with acute or chronic stress, anxieties, depression, psychosomatic conditions, social challenges, low self esteem, lack of sense of agency, lack of fulfilment, and much more, including chronic states. We can decide together whether this form of therapy can fit for you. |
How can guided affective imagery be helpful?
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By letting go of reliance on the conceptual use of words, we let the mind settle on a more fundamental level of consciousness – the direct experience of images and feelings. GAI helps uncover unconscious layers gently and on a symbolic level, so that it is not overwhelming. As you explore this within the comfortable and safe environment of the therapy, you can come to understand and find compassion for yourself, resolve inner conflicts, discover your own resources, and gain resilience. In the guided imagination and the drawn images you can find new perspectives, solutions and possible courses of action, which you can then apply to your life. By drawing after the guided imagination, significant aspects can be further made visible and reflected upon together with me. Like this, insight can occur and processes of change can come into motion. In fact, this can already begin to happen through the experience of the guided imagination itself. |
In the session
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The guided imagination takes place in 1:1 sessions, so that all the attention can be given to your individual explorations. We begin a session with a short talk, seeing what’s on your mind. Sometimes we would work on one topic over several sessions, sometimes the topics would change from session to session. After that, we start the guided imagination. You will lie down or sit comfortably and I will guide you into relaxation. You will remain awake and fully in control the entire time, just relaxed, like in a daydream. The imagination journey begins with a suggested motif that I give you, which you can, but don’t have to follow. I will guide you with open questions and, when needed, support. The guided imagination usually takes approximately 15-30 minutes, but this can sometimes vary. After the Guided imagination, you will have some time in the session to draw or create a visual image with other means. Then we will sit together and talk about the imagination journey and your drawing. |
Session duration, frequency &costs
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Guided Affective Imagination takes place in individual sessions. After a free introductory call on the phone or online: Initial session of 60 minutes: 60€ The sessions can be held weekly, bi-weekly or in individual cases in smaller or larger intervals. |
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Although creative therapies are not usually automatically covered by health insurance in Germany, you may be able to be partially refunded. If you have private health insurance or an additional insurance for non-medical practitioners (Heilpraktiker), check with the insurance company whether and to what extent they may cover the therapy. If you have public health insurance, a partial refund may sometimes be possible with a letter from your physician or psychiatrist stating a diagnosis and a recommendation for creative or artistic therapy. |
There are additional options to apply for funding:
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Persons with disabilities can apply for the ‘Persönliches Budget’ (Personal Budget) financial support. There is unfortunately no version in English, but here you can find a flyer in ‘simple German’. Adolescents and children with disabilities can apply for financial support at the ‘Jugendamt’ (Youth Welfare Office) according to § 35a Abs. 1a SGB VIII. Each Berlin district has a Jugendamt, here you can find information about this topic at Jugendamt Mitte. |
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