Healing and Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery [Paperback]

Leslie Davenport (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2009

A guide to healing from trauma and crisis though the transformative potential of creative visualization techniques.

Tapping into the heart's wisdom through creative visualization is an ancient practice, but today guided imagery is used as an adjunct to conventional medical therapies for health issues ranging from cancer and heart disease to post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. This inspiring guide provides contemporary techniques for using it to transform moments of pain, emotional turmoil, and interpersonal conflict into opportunities for growth and self-realization.

"Her work is insightful, original, and eminently useful for people of all ages and professions." --Angeles Arrien, PhD, author of The Second Half of LifeReviews"Get a deeper look inside yourself."—Body+Soul

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A guide to healing from trauma and crisis though the transformative potential of creative visualization techniques. * The field of guided imagery is enjoying a renaissance in a variety of conventional medicine settings. * Includes a self-facilitation worksheet with step-by-step instructions for undirected, unscripted guided imagery.

About the Author

LESLIE DAVENPORT is the founding director of Marin General Hospital's Institute for Health and Healing. She runs a busy private psychotherapy practice and trains interns in guided imagery at the California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco. She lives in San Anselmo, California.

 THE AUTHOR SCOOP

What has been your most unusual experience teaching imagery or meditation?I was conducting a guided meditation group in the men’s unit of a county jail. We had permission to use candles on a makeshift altar in the dining hall, and the men were taking turns lighting candles to honor their faith, tradition, or to say a silent prayer. It was quite moving. When the candle was passed to one of the men, he turned to me with a gleam in his eye, and said, “I’m in for arson.”

It was a jaw-dropping moment for me, and humorous in retrospect. While I didn’t have the opportunity to explore what this experience was like for him, I can only hope that using fire in this way was transformative for him!

Have any good pet stories? I’ve always had cats, and I credit them as being my first teachers of visualization. As a child, I was fascinated with the way my cat would stare intently on a spot on a ledge in absolute stillness. The focus was so intense I could trace a straight line through the air. A moment later, she would effortlessly spring onto the ledge. She taught me something about the power of seeing where you want to go.

What’s the furthest you’ve ever traveled? It was a trip that took me to India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, and a gypsy camp in what was, at the time, Yugoslavia. That is, of course, if you exclude trips of the imagination…

Were you an imaginative child? I’m pretty sure my mother would say so. One of my favorite pastimes as a child was to walk around the house looking into a mirror that reflected the ceiling, and imagine that I was walking upside down.

What are you working on now? I’m very interested in perception, and how beliefs become lenses through which we view life. Those lenses then color our core experiences. While our perspectives are fluid, we often have a predominant belief system that impacts our life.  I’m working on a book that describes the benefits and drawbacks of common collective lenses.

In simple terms, examples would be: Life is……a classroom – every experience is here to teach us something.…a party – we’re here to enjoy.…a vale of tears – it’s all about suffering and letting go.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Celestial Arts; Original edition (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587613247
• ISBN-13: 978-1587613241
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,647 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leslie is a pioneer in the role of guided imagery in psychotherapy and integrative medicine, and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with Master's Degrees in both the arts and psychology. Leslie is also an ordained minister in an interfaith tradition. Her unique background and creative work has been influential in a health-care revolution that recognizes the role of meaning and the spiritual dimensions of life as an integral part of health and healing.

In the late 1980's Leslie was a founder of the Humanities Program at Marin General Hospital, which evolved into the Institute for Health and Healing in collaboration with California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Her years of clinical experience culminated in the publication of Healing and Transformation through Self-Guided Imagery, through Random House/Celestial Arts/Ten Speed Press. She has also served as Editorial Consultant to Aspen Publishers for their book, Holistic Health Promotion and Complementary Therapies: A Resource for Integrative Practice.

Leslie has more than ten years teaching experience at universities including Mills College, University of San Francisco, California State University Hayward, Holy Names University, and she served as core faculty with the Transpersonal Psychology Graduate Program at John F. Kennedy University.

An engaging speaker, she lectures in a broad range of setting that has included KRON Television, the ABC7 News Hour, Science and Nonduality Conference, National Wellness Conference, Uncovering the Heart of Higher Education Conference hosted by the California Institute of Integral Studies and the Fetzer Institute, to name just a few. She was honored in her home county with the Marin Breast Cancer Council's "Honor Thy Healer" award in 2003.

Leslie is currently in practice at the Health & Healing Clinic at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She is also clinical faculty with the Institute for Health & Healing's Integrative Medicine Certificate Program.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Peaceful and Creative, September 28, 2010

By 

Samuel L. Oliver (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Healing and Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery (Paperback)

Angel of Promise

Leslie Davenport has created a work of art that outlines various forms of healing utilized throughout the world. She guides you through the process of self healing through guided imagery leaving you feeling very good about yourself. It is a powerful tool for those in need of developing their self-esteem and self-worth.

Each chapter gives you another way to look at the world through the experiences and insights of those who have encountered peace within the world no matter what is going on around them. There is no way around stress, but you can find a path through it inside your being by remembering who you are. This book takes you on a journey into the heart and soul of healing care. It is centered in the hearts of those willing to reach deep within themselves and uncover what appears to have been lost - their soul.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great gift for people living in fast times, January 29, 2009

By 

Azima Lila Forest (Silver City NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing and Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery (Paperback)

This book is just what the doctor ordered - or maybe what the doctor should have ordered but didn't know about. Tell your doctor!

We live in times of great change and transformation, and sometimes it's hard to keep up. The body and the emotions often need help in order to be relaxed and to stay in the present moment. This book teaches us a variety of ways to do just that, and to heal from past traumas and attitudes that limit us.

I love the stories. It's moving and transformative to get a glimpse into just how powerful self-guided imagery is in the lives of individual people. Leslie's sensitive and perceptive portrait-painting with words makes them very real. And not only portraits of people, but of the world around us. She reminds us to love this world and live in it whole-heartedly, whole-mindedly, whole-bodily.

I'm recommending this book to friends and clients - I just did so this very day!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, February 6, 2010

By 

Patty Spinks "Patty" (Greenbrae, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healing and Transformation Through Self Guided Imagery (Paperback)

Leslie Davenport's book "Healing and Transformation through Self-Guided Imagery" has given me new hope during a time of great challenge.

While I was in treatment for breast cancer treatment I saw Leslie for Guided Imagery. That was ten years ago. When treatment ended I found myself slowly sliding back into a hectic lifestyle and forgetting the tools that had helped me so profoundly while going through my health crisis.

From the beginning of chapter one Leslie's book grabbed me and reminded of the peace and serenity I had gained in the past. Now I have the tools to re-embrace guided imagery in a new way. I remind myself to take time for myself so I can develop more clarity and reclaim the serenity that I need during today's troubling times.

I will recommend this book to my friends and family... especially my aging parents. This book is not only a gift, it should be required reading. What could be more important than being in touch with our own desires and dreams? We can then find the answers to the deeper meaning in our own lives. This book is a gem.