Imaginary Rescripting (ImRs)

ImRs is the abbreviation of Imaginary Rescripting and is a therapy that can be used if you have not processed a traumatic event properly and the memory of this event continues to disrupt your daily life and your mental well-being.

The goal of ImRs is to reduce the emotional charge of this memory and to alleviate its impact on your daily life.

How does ImRs work?

During the treatment, an experienced therapist will guide you to (a part of) the memory of a traumatic or negative incident. In your imagination, you see and feel everything happening again.

You will then be encouraged to change this memory in your thoughts (= rescripting), by adding new and positive aspects, which changes the course or outcome of the event. You imagine how you would like the traumatic or unpleasant event to have gone differently and you also imagine how you act and how you experience the adjusted event.

For example, you can imagine that there was someone at the time to help or protect you, that you would have reacted differently to the event, resulting in a more positive outcome of the event.

Although you know that these adjustments did not really happen, but only occurred in your imagination, the changes can reduce the negative emotion of the original memory, which can contribute to a reduction of your problems.

For which mental issues can ImRs help?

ImRs is not only effective in trauma treatments, but also for issues and disorders that are caused by a drastic negative experience and the memory of this experience still evokes an emotional reaction, such as anger, sadness, insecurity or fear. Or you can continue to suffer from nightmares, flashbacks or you avoid certain places or situations because of the bad event.

This includes the following mental disorders or problems:

– post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD);
– anxiety disorders;
– depression;
– insecurity and low self-esteem.

Difference between Imaginary Exposure and Imaginary Rescripting

Imaginary Exposure and Imaginary Rescripting are both therapies that can help process traumatic or fearful incidents.

With Imaginary Exposure, you go back to a bad event in your mind under the guidance of a therapist. You imagine that event in detail and as vividly as possible: what happened, what did you feel, what did you hear, what did you smell, etc. It seems as if you are experiencing the event again. By repeating this a number of times, you can process the event better, you gain more control over your memories, which also reduces the associated negative emotions such as tension and fear.

Imaginary Rescripting is similar to Imaginary Rescripting, but goes a step further. After you have imagined the bad experience, you change the course or outcome of the event in your mind. You rewrite (in your imagination) what happened, so that the outcome is more positive or less unpleasant.

Both therapies can help to reduce negative emotions about the event and regain control over bad memories.

Contact Psychologen Amsterdam

Do you need help or do you just have a question about ImRs? Then call for an appointment or send a message to Psychologen Amsterdam.