The Associate-Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney’s Department of Behaviourial Sciences, Professor Wendy-Louise Walker, has developed a whole range of imagery techniques described in an article in the Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in 1984. Amongst these, in her article entitled ‘Some Uses of Imaginative Involvement in Therapy’ was the following (slightly adapted for this book with thanks):
‘Imagine that you’re standing, in the very early morning on a beautiful beach, standing quite alone on that beautiful beach in the pastel stillness of that beautiful beach.
‘Now imagine a wide sweep of fine, pale sand. A clear, blue sea with waves forming, curling, breaking and washing up the beach in curves and scallops of lacy white foam, receding to leave the sand wet and glossy.
‘Imagine a deep blue sea on the horizon shading into paler colours. The sunlight is glinting on the water, the clear brightness of the sky is reflected in the wet sand as the waves recede.
‘Imagine it vividly, still in the cool of the morning so that everything is bright. The colours are so clear and you can feel a cool breeze against your face.
‘Imagine everything looking so fresh, clean and new. The sound of the water, the breeze and the fine clean sand — the bright clear colours. You are now walking along the water’s edge — along the wet sand which is hard, and yet comfortable under your feet. As you walk along the wet sand, you feel the water occasionally washing over your bare feet.
‘You begin to feel exhilarated. You begin to feel joy and exhilaration. It’s such a clear, fresh morning. The colours are so clear and bright. You walk along with the cool air in your face and the waves sometimes washing in a sweep of lacy foam over your feet and then receding.
‘You feel that your body is healthy and light and you walk along with a fine, swinging stride feeling exhilarated and optimistic. You feel the future is great, the exhilaration is quite a vivid, physical feeling and you are intensely aware of the beauty of the sea and the beach and the sky as you walk along.
‘It becomes a very vivid, and very complete, real and total experience.
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