Witness practice empowers clients to check in with their physical, emotional and mental stages at the moment, without judgement, and thus cultivates acceptance to what is. Guided imagery involves visualization of positive, peaceful images/setting which in turn can reduce stress and promote relaxation response.

The goal is to conduct a 30 min session that includes witness and guided imagery practices. I also will 'check in' with the client before and after the practices to assess her response to the therapeutic implementation.

The client is a 59 years old female. She has a history of depression which has been under control for the past several years. She also has cardiovascular disease which is managed through western medicine. She was very close to her mother who passed away 1 year ago.

I planed to meet with client to conduct intake for guided imagery before the implementation session. During the implementation session, I would assessed the client's physical and mental states (scale 1 to 5 with 5 being the best). I then would guide the client through the witness/awareness practice followed by a brief moment of extended exhalation and then guided imagery. After bringing the client out from the guide imagery, I would use the same scale to assess the client's physical and mental states.

I used Raja yoga to support my key teaching goals The witness practice corresponded to Book 1, sutra 35 'or the concentration on subtle sense perception can cause steadiness of the mind'. Specifically, the witness practice cultivates self-awareness and often results in concentration and elimination of mental chatter. The extended exhalation was supported by Book 1, Sutra 34 'or that calm is retained by the controlled exhalation or retention of the breath'. I used extended exhalation to bring the client to the state of calmness to prepare her for the guided imagery. Finally, the guided imagery was supported by Book 1, sutra 9 'imagination is kindled by hearing words, seeing images or experience feeling' (The Secret Power of Yoga Sutra, Nischala Joy Devi). Positive imagination can bring pleasant experience and joy to the heart, that in turn can help the healing process.

The client's overall physical and mental states were at 3+ before therapeutic implementation. I guided the client through witness, extended exhalation and guided imagery practiced. The client's facial expression during the guided imagery was tender at time. At the end of the practice, I asked the client to open her eyes when she was ready to do so. It took her a while before opening her eyes, as if she did not want to leave the experience. I noticed tears in her eyes. I let her cried before asking how she felt. She mentioned that the witness practice helped her to rid of background noise in her head. Extended exhalation helped her to be able to take a deep breath. She also shared that her mother was with her during the guided imagery. However, this did not bring sadness, but rather made her feeling the connection between her and her mother again. Post-implementation score was 5.

I suggested the client to try witness practice and extended exhalation especially when she feels stress or overwhelmed to calm the mind. The witness practice also helps the client to reestablishing contact with her body, developing concentration and learning how to live a each present moment (Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn).

Yes, I applied my intended plan. My goal was achieved because the therapeutic implementation improved the client mental state, i.e., being more calm, able to breath deeply and feeling the sense of peace. I feel that the client's ability to feel spiritually connect with her mother will help her overcoming the grief of losing mom.

I did not have to adapt anything. When I prepared the guided imagery for the implementation, I was debating with myself whether I should include my client's mother; during the intake, the client mentioned that the image of her mother was the most meaningful to her. After giving a long thought about this, I decided to leave her mother out because I was not sure whether this would be a negative trigger (i.e., bringing sadness) or not. Rather, I mentioned 'her family' and this empowered the client to decide whether her mom would be there. I felt that this would be a good compromise. After the session, the client told me that her mother was with her the entire time (the guided imagery was about walking on the path surrounding by a field of flowers). I learned that guided imagery is a powerful tool for healing process, especially when it is customized specifically to each client.

I would use the same approach in the future, i.e., starting with the witness practice, then extended exhalation and guided imagery. I think by keeping the implementation in this order, I slowly prepared the client to receive the full benefit of guided imagery. As mentioned above, witness practice brings focus and calms the mind while extended exhalation induces relaxation response. This helps client to be at the optimal physical and mental states for the guided imagery (Yoga Skills for Therapist by Amy Weintraub; Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati).