Guided Imagery and Music (Bonny) and music-and-imagery adaptations

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Helen Bonny · 1970 · United States

What it is

The Bonny Method is "a music-centered depth approach to transformational therapy" in which a client (the "traveller") lies relaxed and listens to a sequenced programme of mostly classical music while describing spontaneous imagery (visual, bodily, emotional, memory) to a guide who stays with them…

Format

• Individual BMGIM session (90–120 min). Phases and timings as given by Bonde (2015); Abbott, O'Farrell and Appalachian State give the same sequence with small differences:
• Prelude or preliminary conversation (15–25 min). Review the client's current state and life, then agree a focus for the session and often a starting image. In first sessions, explain the process and take a biographical and musical history. The guide also chooses the music programme here, based on…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) as taught in AMI-endorsed training (Appalachian GIM Institute; Atlantis Institute) and summarised by Bonde (2015) and O'Farrell (2010); the music-and-imagery (MI) adaptations as named by Grocke & Moe (2015) and described by Summer (interview 2012), Paik-Maier (2010, Supportive MI) and Bonde (2015, MI/group MI). Moe's group model is Torben Moe's…
• The Bonny Method is "a music-centered depth approach to transformational therapy" in which a client (the "traveller") lies relaxed and listens to a sequenced programme of mostly classical music while describing spontaneous imagery (visual, bodily, emotional, memory) to a guide who stays with them in continuous, non-directive dialogue. Helen Bonny developed it in the US in the 1970s and founded the Institute for…
• Core idea of change: music acts as "co-therapist", catalyst and container. In a relaxed, expanded (non-ordinary) state of consciousness reached through relaxation and music alone (no drugs are part of the method), the music evokes, elaborates, holds and transforms the client's experience; imagery is then linked to life material in verbal processing and drawing. The training tradition frames this within Jungian,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Individual guiding cannot be given in a group, so screen out clients who need it.
• Patterns across sessions, such as recurring images, and reactions to particular pieces.
• Opening up material that the shorter postlude cannot process. Choose music without a large climax.
• The music becoming linked to distress if it is used during crises, and isolated listening replacing other support.
• Mandalas are a processing tool, not a diagnostic test. Do not read the drawing as evidence of abuse or of a disorder.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.