Imagery is a mental performance improvement technique that involves “programming” body and mind with the purpose of responding optimally in a performance situation. The technique is based on the notion that an imagined action activates an internal cognitive representation that is the same as the cognitive representation underlying the “actual” action (see Holmes & Collins, 2001). Imagery has become one of the most popular psychological techniques to improve performance in athletic (e.g., Hall, 2001), academic (e.g., Vasquez & Buehler, 2007), and work contexts (e.g., Neck & Manz, 1992). Imagery is especially well studied in sports, and research in that area supports the claim that imagery improves a wide range of relevant, beneficial outcomes such as objective performance, exercise frequency, attentional focus, game-related tension, and confidence, but also a quicker recovery from injury—outcomes that have been examined across a range of sports contexts (Callow, Hardy, & Hall, 2001; Calmels, Berthoumieux, & Arripe-Longueville, 2004; Cupal & Brewer, 2001; Hale & Whitehouse, 1998; Page, Sime, & Nordell, 1999; Smith, Wright, & Cantwell, 2008).
Despite its long history, visualization is relatively under-represented in academic research. And yet, psychological treatments, such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), increasingly use mental imagery as a practical counseling approach for modifying and restructuring dysfunctional schemas (Thomas, 2016). Framing images provide conceptual metaphors, offering “deep level schemas or ‘experiential gestalts’ that cognitively restructure the individual’s perception of self and self in relation to the environment” (Thomas, 2016, p. 82). In sports, visualization is helpful for rehearsal and optimizing performance; in therapy, mental imagery is an instrument for understanding problems and shaping personality (Kremer, Moran, & Kearney, 2019; Thomas, 2016).
Creative visualization is the cognitive process of purposefully generating visual mental imagery, with eyes open or closed, simulating or recreating visual perception, in order to maintain, inspect, and transform those images, consequently modifying their associated emotions or feelings. The act of creative visualization in hypnotherapy, or in your own self-hypnosis practice is more complex. As a short form, you can think of it as the cognitive process of purposefully building visual mental imagery, with the specific goal of modifying their associated
emotions or mental impact. Guided visualizations are frequently used in hypnosis for their high impact.
Visualization, whether picturing a journey or image, can open the therapeutic dialogue and help the client express complex emotions. The more details you have in a visualization the more real it will seem, and the more it will increase performance as the brain starts to develop neural connections that result from the repeated visual image along with enhancing motivation that increases the likelihood of taking an action toward your goal.
The brain is capable of creating other types of mental imagery, in addition to visual images, simulating or recreating perceptual experience across all sensory modalities, including auditory imagery of sounds, gustatory imagery of tastes, olfactory imagery of smells, motor imagery of movements, and haptic imagery of touch, incorporating texture, temperature, and pressure.