Module 7
Running memories and images on in your mind like a film
Riley had very upsetting images of the accident that kept coming into mind.
This can be common when someone has witnessed a death. Sometimes, these images can be vivid even when we didn’t witness the events.
It can be helpful if you have ‘stuck’ images to run the memory or image on in your mind past the stuck or upsetting point. Keep playing the memory like a movie, and then in your mind go past the stuck point that has kept coming into your mind, so you move on to the next scene.
For Riley, this was imagining Charlie having a peaceful sleep under a tree in a beautiful forest.
The steps that Riley used for the stuck image of Charlie in the accident were:
Imagery Exercise 1
Step 1. Note the stuck image:
Charlie in the accident.
Step 2. Think about the meaning of the image (What is the worst thing about the image? What does it feel like it says about you as a person? What does it say about the person who passed away?)
It was my fault. I should have done something more to stop the accident. Charlie suffered.
Step 3. What do you know now to be true?
I learned in Module 3 that it was not my fault, although it felt like my fault. I now know that the weather and the driver of the car were responsible for the accident. Charlie is no longer suffering.
Step 4. What image might represent that the person is no longer suffering?
Charlie sleeping peacefully under tree.
Step 5. Call to mind the stuck image then run it onto the peaceful image.
I imagined the accident image moving on to Charlie sleeping under the tree, like fast forwarding a movie on TV.
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