ExclusiveDefuse Fear Through 3-Stage Visualization Method | Jessica Russo, Psy.D.｜Vital Signs

While the COVID-19 pandemic is several years behind us, for many the mental health impacts linger. A late 2023 American Psychological Association (APA) survey showed a 5 percent uptick in mental health diagnoses (to 37 percent) among adult Americans compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Clinical psychologist, Jessica Russo, Psy.D., uses visualization therapy—a gradual exposure therapy—to treat patients’ stress and trauma conditions, including those stemming from the pandemic era.

She joins “Vital Signs with Brendon Fallon” to explain the science behind this therapy and to demonstrate a 3-stage stress-reducing visualization with audience participants.

With many experiencing not just social anxieties, but lingering fears of viral infection or a return of restrictive government measures, such as lockdowns—visualization therapy—is a useful tool to help people negotiate their fears at their own pace, Russo says.

The meditation-style therapy engages the inherent resources of the body and mind to invoke a mental space of safety and calm from which to positively integrate stressful thoughts and memories.

Russo highlights the workings of mirror neurons as an example of this: Whether someone is doing something, such as walking along a beach, or seeing someone else do that, these brain cells are activated in the same way.

“Your brain will activate the same chemicals— bad chemicals go down; feel good chemicals go up.”

The idea that what is imagined can produce the same responses in the brain as what is directly experienced is a basis for using visualization therapeutically.

“She starts off in the safe place, and then there’s a neutral space she goes to, and then she challenges her greatest fear, public speaking,” Russo says of a patient she helped curtail anxiety through this method.

“She’s been able to get through this. She’s had maybe five public speaking engagements at this point, and she’s really doing well.”

You can try the short (sample) visualization included in this episode on a mildly annoying or stressful situation you’re facing to see if it works for you.

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Vital Signs’ host, guests, and contributors offer general information on improving health and wellness. This is not intended as diagnosis or medical advice. You should consult your medical doctor or holistic doctor before enacting any suggested strategies for health and wellness improvement, including those in relation to preventing or treating specific diseases featured on this program.