By Leslie Davenport, MS, MFT.  Having offered psychotherapy with guided imagery to hundreds of patients with severe illness and injury, I have seen how multiple losses—physical, spiritual, and psychological—stemming from a health crisis deconstruct a core sense of self, leaving them feeling like a stranger in a strange land. Guided imagery has proven to be a valuable tool for helping patients find a safe harbor within themselves during these extremely stormy times. Guided imagery, which incorporates relaxation training, is a natural, meditative process that reliably offers direct access to inner strengths and clarity of mind.

In her youth, Hemingway lived in fear of falling prey to what she calls “… the Hemingway legacy of mental illness, addiction, and eating and drinking to excess.” Eating a no-fat, low-protein, and carbohydrate-rich diet that kept her looking thin for the cameras, Hemingway, by her own admission, also drank caffeine like a fiend and exercised obsessively. “I loved the energy I got from coffee and then I would jump rope for hours in my apartment after working out at the gym,” she recalls. “Because I didn’t drink alcohol or take drugs, I thought I was the healthiest, cleanest-living person in the world, until I got to the point where I had zero energy, my menstrual periods stopped, and tests revealed that in addition to low thyroid function, I was vitamin-deficient.”