Deep, Relational, Interactive Imagery

by Mary Diggin Ph.D. | Jun 10, 2017 | lhs-blogpage, musings

In deep imagery as we understand it in the Personal Totem Pole Process, the emphasis is on relating directly to the imagery guide and in fully partaking in the experiences that occur in the imagery journeys. A jour­ney begins with the practitioner leading the journeyer through a relaxation process. The aim is to help shift the journeyer’s attention away from where it is currently focused and into their body experience. From there it is easy to shift attention to the window of imagery. 

In a deep imagery journey. our first action is to call for an inner guide, usually an animal, inviting it to come to us. Experience in Imagery journeys is deepened by our active participation with the inner animals rather than by simply ob­serving the animal, thinking about it or interpreting it symbolically. Thus the primary tasks we have as journeyer, are to communicate with the animal, listen to its response, and allow space for further interaction. 

Greet the inner guide and thank it for coming. ,Asking the animal some open- ended questions, such as “What do you need from me?” “What needs to happen now?” “Is something ready to heal?” all allow a deepening of the Imagery journey and enable a truly interactive and relational experience.

By remaining curious about our own process, responsive to our imagery guides and keeping the journey outcome open-ended, the deep imagination 

has the space it needs to bring us to where we most need to go for our own growing, be it emotional, psychological, or spiritual. 

“It is alright to understand it metaphorically but the animal needs also to be related to in the immediacy of its existence, not merely as if it were ‘a message about.’ To treat the animal as if it were only a metaphor about other aspects of one’s life is to miss the fact that it is also the living nucleus of the connection to those other aspects.” 

E.S. Gallegos, The Personal Totem Pole Process, 190 

An Experiential, Process oriented Training 

by Mary Diggin Ph.D. | Jun 2, 2017 | lhs-blogpage, musings

To be a successful deep imagery guide, we must become familiar with the realm of the deep imagination and trust our own inner imagery guides. We need to become skilled at guiding without intruding, of holding space with clarity, with giving direction without distracting the journeyer. 

Training in the Personal Totem Pole process is thus highly experiential, allow­ing participants to plunge deeply into their own process, in order to familiar­ize themselves with the workings of the deep imagination. The training holds that the foundation for any therapist is his or her own inner growth. One can only guide where one has gone before so the training requires a depth of com­mitment to one’s own growing, an openness to change, a curiosity about one’s own process and a willingness to experience whatever needs to happen for one’s own healing. 

The trainee is not merely taught a number of techniques but has an opportunity to undertake his/her own inner work which insures that their eventual ability with the Personal Totem Pole process emanates from deep personal experience. 

Right now it is not a matter of understanding but of experiencing our presence and your own aliveness:’ answers Elephant “Understanding will come later. Understanding always follows experience and cannot precede it If it precedes experience then it is a false under­standing, a sham, a fantasy, a make-believe. 

ES. Gallegos, Nothing is Nothing, 10