The Power of Inner Pictures ─ How Imagination Can Maintain Physical and Mental Health

This book is about inner pictures and how we can access and change these pictures through our imagination. It is written not only for specialists in the field of psychotherapy and coaching, but also for the general public. With Thomas Kretschmar as a specialist in the field and Martin Tzschaschel as a journalist, the authors have created a joint book that is both comprehensive and understandable for everybody.

The first chapter explores inner pictures in general and how they influence us in everyday life, in memories, and in dreams during the day and night, using examples from sports, business and other fields. The book then examines how inner pictures and the imagination can be used for therapy. The applications are drawn both from medical and non-medical treatments, including biofeedback, sleep, hypnosis, autogenic training, and the healing of physical diseases. The authors then examine the methods of imaginative psychotherapy, starting with catathym imaginative therapy (CIP)--a form of therapy initiated by Hanscarl Leuner, which is scientifically proven and widely used in Europe. Additional contemporary methods are also utilized, to make this a completely up-to-date interventional approach. The book concludes with examples of cases from the authors' own therapy practice. Parts of therapy sessions have been transcribed so that the reader is transported into the therapy room. The cases present clients with anxiety attacks, insomnia and burn out, eating disorders, phobias, and OCD.