Hanna Rodriguez 

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Lao Tzu

Strolling along my favorite path the other day, I spontaneously bent down and picked up a smooth, grey pebble that fit perfectly in my palm. It was warm from sitting in the sun. I showed the pebble to my husband, explaining that I had just watched “The Secret,” a documentary in which a man shared his experience with keeping a gratitude stone in his pocket.

In the Disney movie “Big Hero 6,” the main character, Hiro, experiences the loss of his older brother in a tragic accident. His older brother left him with a big, huggable, balloon robot named Baymax programmed to heal sick and injured people. Baymax helps Hiro through his grief process by teaching Hiro to connect with his friends when feeling down, and to cope with his emotions while also taking care of his physical health.

As a graduate student trying to familiarize myself with the latest standards in evidence based practice, I am beginning to realize that there are a lot of seemingly conflicting ideas in the counseling field. In regards to managed care and evidence based practices, it seems that there is quite a lot of pressure to structure sessions with behavioral techniques and procedures.

There are several types of visual and guided imagery techniques including Mental Imagery, Coping Imagery, and Positive Imagery, to name a few (Erford, 2015, p. 75). Each technique may be used to serve different purposes, but the most common use is to help clients decrease anxiety and stress.