From Reliving to Relieving: Using Embodied Imagination to Help Veterans Move Forward

Embodied Imagination (EI) is a psychotherapeutic technique in which a dream or memory environment is reexperienced in a hypnagogic state as a composite of its many perspectives simultaneously. While this method has been employed by mental health professionals to treat trauma survivors, there is scant documentation of its use with combat veterans. This case study focuses on the role of EI in helping a high-ranking Marine work through the stressful memories of war and the indecisiveness that marked his civilian life. Only in the last 6 months of his 2-year treatment could he reveal the recurring intrusive memory and nightmare of a high-risk mission he had authorized as a commanding officer in Afghanistan. The memory of certain decisions he had made on this mission left him with lingering guilt, shame, and doubt. Key to this process was the embodiment of a safe place that contained the patient, allowing him to integrate the more difficult parts of the memory without retraumatization. While EI is similar to other methods for working with nightmares, its emphasis on the non-self-perspective through the exploration of ego-alien imageswhile hewing closely to the original imagesmay be unique. EI appears to be a method that encourages posttraumatic growth.