Image Transformation Therapy

I know first hand the toll trauma can take on our lives, both as someone who has had to overcome my own traumatic experiences, and as a therapist who helps my clients do the same every day.

Trying to move forward through life as best you can when past wounds have not been properly addressed is at best frustrating and discouraging. It often makes life downright miserable.

This is why I am so passionate about helping people heal from trauma. And I have been able to help so many people resolve their past issues fully and completely, and often fairly rapidly, so they can move forward in their relationships and their lives.

I am also always looking for new ways to help my clients heal as effectively and efficiently as I can.

So I was very excited back in 2015, when I discovered another very powerful approach to trauma work that is just as life changing as EMDR. This technique is known as Image Transformation Therapy (ImTT).

I consider ImTT to be a truly transformational treatment technique, and I often suggest to my new clients that we start with ImTT because of how gentle it is and how quickly it helps clients create the change they are looking for.

What Is Image Transformation Therapy (ImTT)?

Image Transformation Therapy (ImTT) was first formulated in 2011 when Dr. Robert Miller, a Ph.D. psychologist with a background in EMDR therapy who had been treating people with traumatic memories for 16 years, made an important discovery. He discovered that his clients’ suicidal thoughts could be quickly reduced by helping them release and let go of their emotional pain.

His technique worked amazingly well, and Dr. Miller has spent the past decade or so refining and improving what has become another breakthrough psychological trauma treatment.

And once again, ImTT is simple and gentle. Yet it is also extremely powerful, quick and effective.

At its core, ImTT involves a series of breathing and visualization exercises that are pleasantly relaxing and can help you quickly “clear out” difficult negative emotions that are triggered by traumatic or otherwise highly disturbing past events.

Here are just some examples of negative emotions I have helped my clients release using Image Transformation Therapy:

• Anxiety, panic, fear, and terror
• Sadness, hopelessness, and despair
• Resentment, anger, and rage
• Guilt and shame
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Powerlessness
• Emotional pain

Remarkably, even though this approach will not fully resolve physical pain, it has proved effective in helping people even reduce levels of chronic physical pain down to the point where they are able to cut back on their pain medications.

How Does Image Transformation Therapy Work?

Let us say you are experiencing an overwhelming amount of anxiety, or perhaps having panic attacks. The first thing I will ask you to do with ImTT is to imagine that anxiety or panic as a color.

Next, I will ask you to tell me where you sense that color residing in your body. For instance, you may visualize your anxiety as the color red and sense it concentrated primarily in your throat or chest area.

After identifying the feeling, the color of that feeling, and where it is primarily located in your body, I will ask you to picture or sense little particles of that color in order to make it easier to begin releasing it from your body. And because the body remembers, by going through the process of releasing those particles physically through a series of breathing exercises, everything will resolve physically, psychologically and emotionally at the same time.

While this may seem extremely simple, I have found it to be a highly effective way for clients to overcome powerful negative emotions so they can move through life’s current challenges without being overwhelmed by emotional triggers driven by past events.

Breathing out the little particles of color will resolve the emotion; however, there are two additional things we will need to do to make the result permanent.

As Dr. Miller explains things, emotions are actually driven by images in our unconscious mind. Therefore, in order to remove an emotion completely, we will also need to remove the image associated with it, which I will teach you how to do once you have told me what image is coming to you when you think of the emotion.

The last thing you will need to do is to repeat the breathing exercises a second time. But this time you will be imagining breathing out the little particles of the destroyed image.

In other words, you will be telling your unconscious mind, “Not only have we destroyed the image you were using to drive this emotion, but we have also removed it from the body so you will never be able to bring it up again.”

I know this may sound strange, but I assure you it works!

By the time we are finished, you will not only be able to use ImTT to quickly overcome negative emotions during therapy sessions, but I will also teach you how to use ImTT between sessions and long after therapy has ended, so you can quickly resolve any future negative emotions you may experience from time to time as you go through life.

Is Image Transformation Therapy (ImTT) Right for You?

While no one therapeutic technique works equally well or is right for everyone, I have found ImTT to be extremely effective for the vast majority of my clients.

And again, given how easy and gentle it is, as well as how immediately helpful it can be, I often recommend clients start with ImTT.

In fact, ImTT is so effective at helping resolve current negative emotions, some clients also chose to use ImTT for their trauma resolution work as well.

The reason for this is that, with ImTT, you are not required to dwell on what happened to you. Instead, once you have identified the memory (or series of memories, if they are in the same theme) that you wish to resolve, we will then immediately switch to having you gently breathe out little particles of the color or colors you have told me are associated with the emotions attached to the memories and they will begin to resolve. The end result is exactly the same as with EMDR therapy but is simply achieved through a different process. This can be very helpful for memories that are too disturbing to think about and that you want to resolve without doing so.

Most of my clients love ImTT, not only because of how quickly it provides relief, but also because it does so without having to “sit with” or “re-visit” in detail painful feelings and memories.

Other therapeutic techniques, such as EMDR, are undoubtedly just as effective as ImTT. However, if you are ready and willing to try something new, I think you will be amazed at how quickly Image Transformation Therapy can also help you overcome anxiety, depression, and other powerful negative emotions, as well as the underlying traumatic experiences that often drive them.

I continue to marvel at how rapidly my clients can overcome crises and achieve their goals using ImTT, and I encourage everyone to give it a try.

You quite literally have nothing to lose and a whole life to gain!

To learn more about how Image Transformation Therapy can help you gain immediate relief and move forward in your relationships and life with confidence and optimism, please contact me at 650-680-7124 or by email at claire@gclaireroberts.com with any questions you have or to schedule an initial consultation. I look forward to speaking with you and helping you create a life that’s truly worth living.