Harnessing emotional mental imagery to reduce anxiety and depression in young people: an integrative review of progress and promise

Pile, Victoria; Williamson, G. Gordon; Saunders, Aleks; Holmes, Emily A.; Lau, Jennifer Y. F.

doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00195-4

Cited by 41 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…Our results are in line with previous evidence showing that mental imagery evokes greater down-regulation of negative affect compared to verbal approaches (Holmes et al, 2009; Holmes & Mathews, 2010; Pile et al, 2021), highlighting one way through which imagery facilitates emotional processing. Additionally, I-CR may have promoted emotional processing of maladaptive anger by increasing the intensity of adaptive emotions associated with the helpful beliefs, in line with the idea that maladaptive emotions may most effectively be processed when they are transformed into adaptive emotions (Greenberg & Pascual-Leone, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Assessing the down-regulation of maladaptive anger during imagery-enhanced cognitive restructuring for hostility: A randomized controlled trial.

Kalkbrenner¹,

Teffelen²,

Voncken³

et al. 2023

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

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The down-regulation of maladaptive emotions during psychotherapy is frequently assessed via self-report, but the additional assessment of physiological arousal may provide unique insights. Maladaptive anger, as experienced by hostile individuals, can have debilitating intra- and interpersonal consequences. In a recent randomized controlled trial (RCT), it was shown that enhancing cognitive restructuring (CR) with mental imagery increases its efficacy in reducing maladaptive anger-triggering hostile beliefs, but not self-reported anger. The present secondary data analysis examines physiological data collected during the RCT to investigate whether imagery-enhanced cognitive restructuring (I-CR) facilitated the down-regulation of maladaptive anger-related arousal. A sample high in trait hostility (N = 87, 72% female, 28% male) was randomized over one session of I-CR (n = 34), traditional CR (n = 32), or an active control group (AC, n = 21). Blood pressure and heart rate were assessed pre- and postintervention, and pre- and poststressor one week after the intervention. The results showed that I-CR reduced postintervention systolic blood pressure to a larger degree than CR and AC. Diastolic blood pressure was reduced more strongly by I-CR compared to AC, but not to CR. No between-group differences in postintervention heart rate were found, nor in response to the stressor for all three measures. Limitations of this study include that the sample was rather small, non-treatment seeking, and mostly female. In conclusion, physiological down-regulation emerged immediately postintervention and was distinctive for I-CR and systolic blood pressure. Adding mental imagery to CR thus facilitates the down-regulation of maladaptive anger-related arousal.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Assessing the down-regulation of maladaptive anger during imagery-enhanced cognitive restructuring for hostility: A randomized controlled trial.

Kalkbrenner¹,

Teffelen²,

Voncken³

et al. 2023

Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

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“…From then on, the academic community began to pay attention to the positive value of anime works. Japanese anime enjoys a certain influence worldwide, and there are more monographs on Japanese anime research, but most of them explore the ideological connotation of anime works and do not explore too much the ideological and political education function of anime culture [ 17 ]. In “Partners of Ghibli,” Toshio Suzuki emphasizes the ideological concepts embedded in anime works as the key to attracting audiences: “movies that contain philosophy, ways of being, and inner issues are more likely to sell.”…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animation Narrative on Stress Relief and Psychological Cognitive Development in Adolescents

Jiang

Yue

2022

Occupational Therapy International

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As the atmosphere of domestic animation is getting stronger and stronger in recent years, its proportion in the process of public aesthetics, entertainment, and consumption is increasing; thus, the relationship between the audience and works has become an important academic focus. The theatrical animation in the animation industry has become the category that needs to be focused on and changed in the development process of domestic animation because of its characteristics of receiving attention from all-age audiences. Because of the diversified audience levels faced by theatrical animation, it is particularly difficult to coordinate the needs of each audience level, coupled with the long-term influence of Japanese and American animation; the trend of pop culture led by network culture; the inheritance, excavation, and reconstruction of national culture; and other cultural environment and creative thinking intertwined, making the construction of the independence of domestic animation appear more and more difficult. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the theoretical study of the healing elements of Natsume Yojimbo and to analyze the creation of Chinese traditional ink and wash in the creation of our own works. It is concluded that the thematic choices are based on two categories: emotions and dreams, which focus on personal life experience and universal concern for human life. The character construction is divided into three aspects: self-resistance and self-reflection, self-vision and self-actualization, and traumatic experience and self-rescue to explain the complexity and diversity of the characters’ growth connotation. The narrative perspective constitutes the perspective from which the issues are viewed. The omniscient perspective allows for the coexistence of complex character relationships and a clear storyline, while the limited perspective reveals certain emotional tendencies. The narrative mode presents the moral of the text with cause-and-effect narrative, embellished group narrative, and dreamlike polyphony narrative. Finally, the article discusses the realistic dilemma of the growth narrative of domestic online animation and tries to put forward feasible development suggestions in response to the problems at this stage.

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“…Deliberate mental imagery generation plays a key role in action planning (Keller, 2012), simulating past and future events (D'Argembeau & Van der Linden, 2006), and escapism (Schäfer, Sedlmeier, Städtler, & Huron, 2013). Such mental imagery is also a feature of evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatment for mood and anxiety disorders (Hackmann, Bennett-Levy, & Holmes, 2011;Hirsch & Holmes, 2007;Pearson, Naselaris, Holmes, & Kosslyn, 2015;Blackwell, 2019;Holmes, Arntz, & Smucker, 2007;Lang, 1977;McEvoy, Saulsman, & Rapee, 2018;Mendes, Mello, Ventura, De Medeiros Passarela, & De Jesus Mari, 2008;Pile, Williamson, Saunders, Holmes, & Lau, 2021;Saulsman, Ji, & McEvoy, 2019). A key concern is that whilst these therapies are remarkably effective (Arntz, 2012), their efficacy may be affected by patients' ability to alter vividness and content of mental imagery (Johnsen & Lutgendorf, 2001;Mota et al, 2015;Richardson & Taylor, 1982;Stopa, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye Closure Interacts with Music to Influence Vividness and Content of Directed Imagery

Herff

McConnell

et al. 2022

Music & Science

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Goal-directed, intentional mental imagery generation supports a range of daily self-regulatory activities, such as planning, decision-making, and recreational escapism. Many clinical interventions for mood and anxiety disorders also use imagery and their effectiveness can be affected by an individual's ability to manipulate vividness and content of mental imagery. Prior literature points towards music as a promising candidate to influence imagination in such settings, but basic questions remain regarding how music affects mental imagery and how it interacts with basic, well-established parameters, such as facilitatory effects of eye closure. One hundred participants listened to music and a silent control whilst performing a guided mental imagery task. Specifically, participants saw a short video of a figure journeying towards a landmark and imagined a continuation of the journey with either closed or open eyes. After each trial, participants reported vividness and content of their imagined journeys. Bayesian Mixed Effects Models obtained strong evidence of greater vividness, duration, as well as distance travelled in music conditions compared to silent conditions. Additionally, interactive effects of music and eye closure were found for both vividness and the emotional valence of imagined content, where music effects were disproportionately amplified by eye closure. Findings further support music's potential to manipulate the perceptual, spatial-temporal, as well as emotional sentiment of deliberately generated mental imagery.

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Harnessing emotional mental imagery to reduce anxiety and depression in young people: an integrative review of progress and promise

Cited by 41 publications

References 92 publications

Assessing the down-regulation of maladaptive anger during imagery-enhanced cognitive restructuring for hostility: A randomized controlled trial.

Assessing the down-regulation of maladaptive anger during imagery-enhanced cognitive restructuring for hostility: A randomized controlled trial.

Animation Narrative on Stress Relief and Psychological Cognitive Development in Adolescents

Eye Closure Interacts with Music to Influence Vividness and Content of Directed Imagery

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