This mind-body therapy uses your imagination to help you relax, relieve symptoms, stimulate your body’s healing responses, access inner strengths and resources, and tolerate procedures and treatments better.
Guided imagery at a glance
Guided imagery includes several techniques from simple visualization and direct imagery-based suggestion to metaphor and story-telling. Guided imagery is enhanced by using as many senses as possible: sight, smell, sound, and body sensing. It is used to relieve symptoms, to stimulate healing responses in the body, to access inner resources, and to help you tolerate medical procedures and treatments more easily. Guided imagery is also used in teaching relaxation involving the relationship between mental (psyche) and physical (physiological) processes. Interactive Guided Imagery (IGI) is a specific way of using imagery that is particularly effective in helping patients use their own inner resources.
Guided imagery shows benefits in reducing many side effects and symptoms common during cancer or cancer treatments, especially depression and pain. It is often combined with progressive muscle relaxation and sometimes other mind-body therapiesapproaches that enhance your mind’s capacity to positively affect your body’s function and symptoms. Some interventions focus on calming your mind, improving focus, enhancing decision-making capacity, managing stress, or resolving conflict. Other interventions have a goal of relaxing both your mind and your body. such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or hypnosis.
In this review, we look at guided imagery’s effects, often part of or used in combination with one or more other mind-body therapies as listed here. We report which therapies are included in each study and each summary.
- Breathing techniques
- Hypnotherapy
- Psychosocial therapies
- Relaxation techniques
CancerChoices ratings for guided imagery
We rate guided imagery on seven attributes, with 0 the lowest rating and 5 the highest. We rate the strength of the evidence supporting the use of guided imagery for a medical benefit, such as improving treatment outcomes or managing side effects.
See how we evaluate and rate complementary therapies ›
Keep reading about guided imagery
Reviewer
Laura Pole is senior clinical consultant for CancerChoices. Laura is an oncology clinical nurse specialist who has been providing integrative oncology clinical care, navigation, consultation, and education services for over 40 years. She is the co-creator and co-coordinator of the Integrative Oncology Navigation Training at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC. Laura also manages the “Media Watch Cancer News That You Can Use” listserv for Smith Center/Commonweal. In her role as a palliative care educator and consultant, Laura has served as statewide Respecting Choices Faculty for the Virginia POST (Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment) Collaborative as well as provided statewide professional education on palliative and end-of-life care for the Virginia Association for Hospices and Palliative Care.
For CancerChoices, Laura curates content and research, networks with clinical and organizational partners, brings awareness and education of integrative oncology at professional and patient conferences and programs, and translates research into information relevant to the patient experience as well as clinical practice.
Laura sees her work with CancerChoices as a perfect alignment of all her passions, knowledge and skills in integrative oncology care. She is honored to serve you.
Last update: April 7, 2024
Last full literature review: October 2021
CancerChoices provides information about integrative in cancer care, a patient-centered approach combining the best of conventional care, self care and evidence-informed complementary care in an integrated plan cancer care. We review complementaryin cancer care, complementary care involves the use of therapies intended to enhance or add to standard conventional treatments; examples include supplements, mind-body approaches such as yoga or psychosocial therapy, and acupuncture therapies and self-care lifestyle actions and behaviors that may impact cancer outcomes; examples include eating health-promoting foods, limiting alcohol, increasing physical activity, and managing stress practices to help patients and professionals explore and integrate the best combination of conventionalthe cancer care offered by conventionally trained physicians and most hospitals; examples are chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy and complementary therapies and practices for each person.
Our staff have no financial conflicts of interest to declare. We receive no funds from any manufacturers or retailers gaining financial profit by promoting or discouraging therapies mentioned on this site.