Imagination Work in Therapy

I love incorporating imagination work with those who are open to it. It's a playful space that sometimes takes time to reach — especially if the playful space wasn't given legitimacy in a childhood that included harm. If it suits you, we'll explore these spaces through imagination.

It might sound strange, but I have an imaginary wand. Sometimes I use it to bring exactly what you were missing in childhood. There's also a switch that can pause memories as they surface, so we can process them together — to hear what you needed there and to allow the memory to feel less alone. It's possible for the memory to feel different. To turn the thick, heavy blanket of loneliness into a coat that fits you — one that warms without weighing you down.

We can bake together, return to dreams, listen to the pain that was there from a distance and a protected place — and only within the bounds of what feels safe and comfortable enough for you. And I'm there with you.

In imagination work, in therapy, I sometimes use a chair that allows you to seat a part of yourself on it and have a conversation with it, as if it were outside of you. Despite mentioning a wand, it's not really magic — it's a process. The critical voice doesn't disappear immediately, for example, but through this kind of work you can recognize it deeply. Ask questions and understand what triggers it. Learn how to talk to it, how to calm it, how to say enough.

The effect of such a process is beneficial. The critical voice feels less need to shout at you when we've given it a place to be heard — when we put a chair there and listened to it. And if it continues to shout, then we'll stop it together, and redirect it to protect you in a way that isn't harmful — without coming down on you, without undermining you, without threatening you... Because honestly, maybe its intention is good, but it also hurts. And in my room — physical or virtual — I don't allow you to be harmed. And in fact, the protection will very quickly become yours too, your own protection of yourself. This is part of a process centered on self-compassion and radical acceptance.