Meeting at the precipice: Creative visualization in the treatment of trauma

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper illustrates the integration of guided visualization, drawn from clinical hypnosis, in a self-psychologically informed treatment with a traumatized patient. In providing a hypnotic script, I serve as a witness and felt presence as I accompany the patient as she draws upon her imagination. Images and written reflections engage her capacity to creatively symbolize her childhood trauma with distance and reflective space. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy unlocks state-dependent memories and stimulates new associations and self-compassion. Within a psychodynamic framework, these creative interventions titrate the destabilizing impact of traumatic recall by empowering the patient as an active agent, utilizing her creative resources to create an expanded, healing narrative.