The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) offers a means of connecting with the essence of who we are. We have witnessed this approach to be deeply transformational for our clients and the students in our training program.
In our work with clients, we find GIM helps people to gradually open to trusting their inner self and to the wisdom and healing this offers. Through the support of the GIM process, clients can encounter and address difficult emotions, thoughts, and memories, and open to new possibilities, self-acceptance, and transformation of consciousness. In our training of students, GIM offers them a unique, positive, and powerful tool for their work with clients. And since experiencing GIM personally is part of their training, participants often have their own transformative experience through practice in supervised dyads.
GIM was developed in the early 1970’s by Helen Bonny, PhD, who had an epiphany experience while playing the violin as a young woman. This transformational experience led her on a path of researching how music impacts us in body, mind, and spirit. She later utilized her extensive knowledge of music, her research, and her intuitive self to create over 40 music programs. These music programs were designed for people who were ready to open to peak or spiritual experiences, creative expansion, and personal growth as well as those with therapeutic issues.
We offer training in GIM as faculty of the Atlantis Institute for Consciousness and Music, an endorsed training program through the Association for Music and Imagery (AMI). With our integrative focus, we include other expressive modalities in our GIM training, including the drawn mandala, poetry and journaling, body awareness, and mindfulness meditation. At each level of training, you are invited into different experiences of listening and relating to music, so you will be able to offer it to clients as your co-therapist for connecting with their inner resources.
Learn how integrating music and imagery into your work can help people deal with life transitions, reduce stress and anxiety, enhance emotional well-being, address grief and loss, reduce the impact of trauma, and deepen spiritual connection. The training program is designed for Mental Health Professionals (Counselors, Social Workers, Psychologists), Music Therapists, and Health Care Professionals.