T's And Learning Visualization Techniques

[shimmerz]

I use visualization quite a bit to help me. It has been a key to my recovery journey. I was taught how to do so by my shaman.

I was wondering.... Did your T teach you how to visualize? And if so, how did your T teach you how to fine tune your visualization skills?

 

[DogwoodTree]

Visualization comes very naturally for me...always has, even as a young kid. My T tries to direct it some, give me ideas of what kinds of visualization might be helpful, but that's about it.

 

[shell]

I would love to hear how others visualize, my T is also shamanic based and I brought in my spirit guide which was a crow to assist me to comfort the child me and keep her safe.

I really struggled to "see" visually, so I moved away from working in this way, but maybe it would help me to return to this work as I think it was really a good way of healing for me. I am not a visual person, I experience things somatically, so when I couldn't produce the images in my mind or they appeared for a second and then flashed away, I would become really frustrated.

I think I gave up too soon.

 

[caramelmix]

This to me is interesting, I have always visualized as well since being a small child, My problem is feeling, I can build and reconstruct visuals all day long but I cant feel them, its like they are always just out of reach.

I experience things somatically, so when I couldn't produce the images in my mind or they appeared for a second and then flashed away, I would become really frustrated.

I am getting frustrated because I can't experience things somatically, we need to share skills and then life problems solved! tehe

 

[Sandstone]

I visualise vey easily, for instance working on a safe place I can build a clear concrete image and feel and smell it as well as see it.But I'm not sure how else that skill can be used - what do you do @shimmerz and @DogwoodTree ?

Sorry, I'm asking questions instead of offering support.

 

[scout86]

Mine has said, since I can't do "visual visualizations" yet, that I should try to incorporate as many senses other senses as I can and try to combine them. More or less attach things together. Some of THAT I have trouble with because it seems too real and present and somehow "unsafe". My T said he started out not being able to "do pictures" too, but learned, through practice. He says all we're doing is activating the visual cortex in the brain (and there are brain scans to prove it) and it should be possible to learn, if you really want to. He's good at it now, but it took a long time.

 

[watundah]

We designated a safe place for me to keep in mind, for which I chose a waterfall in the woods that I recently hiked to. Is that what you mean?

 

[DogwoodTree]

I am not a visual person, I experience things somatically,

I am getting frustrated because I can't experience things somatically, we need to share skills and then life problems solved!

But I'm not sure how else that skill can be used - what do you do Link Removed and @DogwoodTree ?

Hm, I'm thinking I actually visualize the somatic layer...let me think on that and I'll come back.

 

[DogwoodTree]

Been thinking on this. So...I do think I visualize the somatic layer--I "see" emotions existing in my body-space, or I visualize blockages and tension in my body. But it's not for the purpose of changing what is there. It's for the purpose of understanding reality.

I can visualize just about anything I want to. My problem is that I have to work on keeping the visualizations connected to reality, because I can go off on crazy tangents visually in my mind...storylines that affect me emotionally...but that aren't real. And then I'm responding to unreality.

I've tried therapies that attempt to change a person's experience of reality and bring about healing by changing the pictures they see. So like...remember an abuse event, and then see something happen differently in that moment, and thereby create a more acceptable emotional relationship with the event (like...visualizing someone coming in and rescuing me and beating up the abuser). I can see that...but even if I try to convince myself that this is a much better way to remember the event, it doesn't feel real. It feels like a lie. It feels like I'm trying to brainwash myself.

A couple of weeks ago, I told my T about a difficult conversation with someone. He suggested that I think back to the conversation and think about what I wanted to happen in the conversation. I asked him why I would do that, if what I wanted is not what happened. And he said it isn't about changing my memory of what happened, but simply getting in touch with what my longing was for...because what I long for tells me something about myself, and understanding that piece of myself might help me find the route I need to take in order to get those needs met.

So that wasn't necessarily a visualization exercise, but it's kind of the same idea (seeing an event in a different way...from a different perspective).

I'm really resistant to anything that feels like brainwashing (because that was an extensive part of my trauma history), so I guess visualization just hasn't helped much on that front, even though I primarily think visually (as opposed to verbally). My T has focused on perspective-shifting. "Let's look at this from a different angle."

Actually, we had an interesting conversation at last week's session. We were out in the field with the horses, and one of the Ts asked me to talk about what I perceived in the space, kind of in a stream-of-consciousness way. I started pointing out visual details all around us, both macroscopic and microscopic, and linking them to things beyond what we could see, and even beyond our current point in the timeline. The T was surprised that I hardly focused on the horses at all, and after about 5 min of that, she asked if I had ever had my IQ tested (I have...it's above average, but not by a huge amount). She said it makes sense I would be so easily overwhelmed when I'm processing so much visual data at any given time. That's why dissociation is so helpful to me...to be able to step away a bit from that onslaught. But inside, I process most things visually, too. Even words...when people speak to me, I translate the auditory data into written words that run across my visual field like a news ticker. I have to "read" the words in order to understand what was said.

Now, as far as visualization "techniques" that I've developed for myself...one thing is visualizing clearer borders around my "space." I picture my own emotions existing within myself, and not leaking all over other people. And I picture other people's energy being stopped and blocked by the 3-dimensional "force field" around my space. I visualize sending their energy back to them, rather than "taking it in" to my space like I used to. I think I'm aware of things on an energy level more extensively than what most people seem to be aware of, and trying to put pictures onto what I'm sensing helps me to understand it and work with it better.

Also, visualizing how ideas and concepts relate to each other in my mental space helps me make connections I wouldn't have otherwise. It's almost like taking puzzle pieces, and twisting them around at different angles, until I see how they fit together.

I also keep trying to visualize the "parts" within me, but I haven't been able to see that stuff clearly yet. It's like I get stuck inside a room inside a house, and can't see the other rooms (even though when I'm physically in a real house, I visualize the other spaces outside of my vision all the time). I'm slowly coming to a place where I can see these different rooms as parts of a complexity, rather than as independent singularities.