Talking About Imagery Reversal Therapy

There are many types of therapy that exist to help others improve their overall mental health.

If you're familiar with therapy at all, you may know about cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, or other methods that are quite popular. However, you may not know about imagery reversal therapy.

In this post, we’ll look at what it is and how it can help you.

What is it?

Imagery reversal therapy, or IRT, is a form of therapy used primarily to treat nightmares, especially if it comes from people who have post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Nightmares can be an occasional fright. You dream about something that is frightening or triggering, and when you wake up, it can feel real. Some nightmares can make it so that you have poor sleep quality or you don’t sleep at all.

The reason why it’s associated with people who have PTSD is that the nightmares tend to be much worse than your average person. For many people, nightmares aren’t too much of a problem past their childhood. However, PTSD nightmares can involve reliving the trauma, making it difficult for someone to go asleep.

This applies even more so when your dreams are nothing but you reliving your trauma. Some dreams may start innocently, then evolve into you facing your trauma again and again. You may wake up in a cold sweat after all this.

IRT is similar to other forms of dream therapy, where one records their dreams and then talks about them with their therapist.

How it differs is that the goal is to reduce the severity of your dreams and to make sure you are having dreams with a more positive end.

How it Works

IRT begins by writing down your nightmare. As dreams and nightmares tend to be forgotten after you wake up, you need to write it down as soon as you can and get as many details.

Having a pen and paper or another device you can use to write everything down is a good way for you to get everything.

Since this form of therapy tends to involve people who have PTSD, it’s important to know that many people who have PTSD are unable to record it. In a case like this, having people who are nearby to assist the victim is what is needed.

So, now that you've written everything down, now what? You need to give it a positive ending.

IRT involves re-imagining your nightmares into something with a more positive ending. For example, let’s take the generic dream concept of falling. You may dream that you fell, then as soon as you hit the ground, you woke up.

In IRT, you may rewrite it so that you had a parachute all along.

Of course, PTSD dreams are much more intense, and it may take some thinking from you and your therapist to figure out a good ending for your nightmares.

So, you have a good ending. Now what?

The goal now is to dream the nightmare but have a positive ending.

How can you do this?  One way is to recite the reworded dream over and over again. When you are about to go to bed, tell yourself that you are going to have a positive dream.

Dreams tend to be unpredictable, and there is a good chance that you may end up not having the right dream on your first try. It may take several attempts for you to do so. Just like most forms of therapy, you may have to keep trying before you see any results. Just know what when you do, you’ll be able to see some results quite quickly.

It Can Be Effective

IRT works because it is connected with the spirit of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which can treat many mental health disorders. When you have nightmares, your thoughts may focus on them. However, when you keep telling yourself that you're going to have good dreams that night, you may end up having better dreams as a result.

Of course, it’s not for everyone. Try as you may, not everyone can change what they dream.

Not only that but thinking about what you dream all the time may have the opposite effect when it comes to helpfulness. If you're always thinking about what you're going to dream, it may make it difficult for you to fall asleep.

A therapist who has been assigned to help you will change treatment methods should you not see any results with IRT. With that said, there are many who have seen results for the better.

It’s Just One Way to Treat PTSD

PTSD is a complex disorder that you will need many treatments for.

PTSD doesn’t go away just because your dreams are better. However, nightmares can worsen your PTSD, and the lack of sleep you have from the nightmares doesn’t help, either.

A good therapist will use several forms of treatment to help with your PTSD. They may help you identify your triggers and learn how to avoid them. A therapist may teach you methods to calm yourself should you have an episode. In some cases, a combination of medicine and therapy may be key.

Online Therapy Can Help

If you have PTSD, it can be difficult for you to leave your home due to your trauma. The idea of visiting a therapist in person may be too intimidating for you, and this can prevent you from getting the treatment that you need.

Online therapy helps you to connect to a therapist through the comfort of your own home. You can speak to a therapist in real-time and get the help that you need when you have anxiety, depression, or severe PTSD.

One way that you can get help is through BetterHelp. They are an online therapy hub that has many therapists waiting to help you. You can connect to a therapist best fit for your situation, and it doesn’t cost too much for you to do so.

(Disclaimer: Marie Miguel has been a writing and research expert for nearly a decade, covering a variety of health-related topics. Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)