Coaching practices for Imagery Rescripting Depression

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Imagery Rescripting Depression, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • There’s a painful scene I keep going over in my head, but always as a dry summary of what it meant
  • There’s one specific scene from when I was small that I can still feel in my body, and part of me wishes I could step back into that moment and do for that kid what nobody did
  • This isn’t something I can fix
  • I keep replaying that argument from behind my own eyes and every time I do, the same hurt and anger flood right back as if it’s happening again
  • When everything’s falling apart I have nobody in my head to turn to

Practices that may help

  1. Use imagery to re-engage with avoided experiences
    Revisit a distressing memory in concrete imagery rather than abstract analysis.
    Rumination-Focused CBT, Made Practical
  2. Imagery rescripting for schema memories
    Revisit a difficult childhood memory in imagination and rewrite it so the child’s needs are met.
    Schema Therapy: Healing Early Maladaptive Beliefs
  3. IMPROVE the moment
    Use Imagery, Meaning, Prayer, Relaxation, One thing, Vacation, and Encouragement to get through right now.
    Distress Tolerance Skills, Made Practical
  4. The fly-on-the-wall replay
    Replay a difficult event as if watching it from outside the room rather than from behind your own eyes.
    Self-Distancing Journaling
  5. Compassionate Imagery: The Compassionate Image and Safe Place
    Develop a vivid compassionate figure in imagination whose care you can access during distress.
    Compassion-Focused Therapy: Calming the Inner Critic
  6. Dereflection: redirect attention from suffering to engagement
    Stop staring at the suffering and put your attention fully on something worth doing.
    Logotherapy
  7. Situational reappraisal
    Change how you interpret the situation itself — not the feeling, but the meaning of what is happening.
    Cognitive Reappraisal vs. Suppression, Made Practical
  8. Therapeutic Letters
    A therapist’s written letter to a client between sessions — documenting alternative-story gains before they fade.
    Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
  9. Mental subtraction of a positive event
    Vividly imagine how your life would look if a specific good thing had never happened.
    Negative Visualization for Gratitude: The Stoic Path to Appreciation
  10. Rehearse the full scenario in vivid mental imagery
    Walk through the difficult situation in your mind — including the hard moments — and watch yourself cope.
    Cope Ahead: DBT’s Method for Preparing for Difficult Situations

Related concerns

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