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Nurses note that guided imagery not only helps to relax children and increase the effectiveness of pain medications, but also elevates their immune functioning and lessens any anxiety and depression they may be experiencing.

When an 8-year-old girl awoke in her hospital bed complaining of pain from her stitches, her mother didn’t immediately push the call button for the nurse. Her daughter had recently received pain medication, and the mother decided to try a different approach. She asked her daughter to practice the guided imagery techniques she’d learned before her surgery.

The child began to envision a colorful hot air balloon pressing against her stitches causing them to hurt. Then she saw her imaginary friend, a beautiful unicorn, popping the hot air balloon. As the imaginary balloon slowly deflated, the girl’s pain seemed to diminish. A half hour later, she was sound asleep.

A nice distraction

Nurses across the country are discovering the benefits of teaching guided imagery to their youngest patients. A study conducted earlier this year by Myra Huth, RN, PhD, assistant vice president of nursing research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, reported that guided imagery techniques used in combination with pain medication can significantly reduce postoperative pain and anxiety in children.

Huth and two colleagues studied 73 children aged 7 to 12 who were in the hospital to have their tonsils and/or adenoids removed. About half of Huth’s study group learned guided imagery, a method of distraction in which patients focus their attention away from an undesirable sensation.

Patients in the guided imagery group were given instructional videotapes, audiotapes, and booklets on guided imagery before their surgery and asked to practice with the materials before they were admitted to the hospital. They also listened to the audiotape one to four hours after surgery and at home.

The children who learned guided imagery reported significantly less pain and anxiety while hospitalized after their surgery than those who did not receive the instruction.

Nurses who practice guided imagery techniques on patients say that Huth’s findings give credence to a treatment modality that is becoming more accepted.

Lee Rowan, RN, CIIG, of Berkeley, Calif., left her position as an ICU nurse two years ago to open her own guided imagery practice, Imagery for Health.

“I admit I was very skeptical of guided imagery at first,” Rowan says. “The concept seemed as foreign as practicing voodoo or magic.”

After taking classes and achieving a certificate in integrated imagery through a school called Beyond Ordinary Nursing in Foster City, Calif., Rowan became a convert. In her private practice, she sees both children and adults, and says the majority of her patients come to her frustrated and dissatisfied with Western medicine.

“I’ve seen children with sleep disorders, joint pain, and stomachaches desperately seeking ways to relieve their symptoms,” Rowan says.

Rowan meets with new patients for an initial consultation and helps them customize a guided imagery plan to meet their individual needs.

“Children are so imaginative that guided imagery is usually an easy concept for them to grasp,” Rowan says. “They are less resistant than adults to try something new, and don’t have the preconceived notions about guided imagery that many adults have.”

Her sessions begin with children describing their pain or condition and exploring their pain with all five senses. Then Rowan encourages them to invent an imaginary friend who can help soothe their pain and offer relief.