This Is Why You Should Use Imagination In Therapy
Fantasy could be the key to treating many mental health disorders
As a child, my imaginary world was as real to me as the world around me and much safer. I often said that I wouldn’t have survived my childhood without imagination, and it turns out that I may have been doing a form of self-therapy.
A study by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mouth Sinai finds that imagining a threat activates the same neural substrate as reacting to a threat that exists in reality. The theory further suggests that imagination might help treat neuropsychiatric disorders like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“Imagination is a word that is used in a lot of ways, and it’s hard to define for science in a technical way,” he says. “But imagination is creating possible scenarios in your head. Certainly, when people talk about imagination they talk about imagery, and that’s part of it. But there are also a lot of imaginative processes that don’t have to be sensory in nature. You can think about a hypothetical situation without having to actually picture yourself in it.” — Jim Davies, director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory at Carleton University in Canada
There is evidence that patients can use imagination therapeutically. Jim Davies says that the mind doesn’t distinguish fantasy from reality while imagining things. In Neuron, Dr. Schiller says that when a person uses imagination to mimic a situation, the same brain regions activate when they experience real-life problems.
Because of this, imagination can help;
- decrease pain
- adjust unhealthy expectations
- create a sense of agency
- reappraise the past
- offer safe exposure therapy
- build cognitive framing
Fantasy and reality: overlapping neural mechanisms
Wager says imagination can be a powerful clinical tool.
“This tells us that many of the processes we think are automatic in our brains can be influenced by how we conceptualize the problem, or how we conceptualize ourselves in the situation. We know that imagery and visualization techniques can be helpful, but this is the first step to understanding why scientifically.”
Next steps
Schiller hopes to continue to investigate the neural mechanisms of mental action. She says a more detailed understanding of imagination, sensory or otherwise, can improve clinical therapies and offer new insights into the ins and outs of human behavior.
“Think about decision-making,” she says. “What happens when you imagine outcomes or your experience? Suppose we have a reliable way to measure the neural substrate that underlies imagination. In that case, we can ask a lot of questions in different domains about how our imaginations influence how we think, how we feel, and what we do.”
Wager agrees. “We already know that imagination is a powerful tool — and it matters how you direct it,” he says. “An imagination that is out of control may lead to fears or anxiety. An imagination that is better directed may help avoid them. It’s important we better understand this ability because, more and more, we are learning that the cognitive contents of our brains are important.”
Imagine that.
Resources
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/arts-and-health/202209/can-imagination-help-heal-trauma
https://www.verywellmind.com/10-ways-to-heal-from-trauma-5206940
https://community.thriveglobal.com/the-power-of-imagination-in-overcoming-trauma/
