Music and Imagery Association of Australia

The Music and Imagery Association of Australia, Inc (MIAA) was established in 1994. Its goals are to promote the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), to organise training in the method, to establish standards of practice and ethical conduct, and to monitor practitioners’ compliance with the established standards. The association currently has 40 members, 10 of whom are Registered GIM Therapists.

GIM is a process of music psychotherapy in which music and imagery experiences are used to bring about therapeutic change. The process involves clients listening to specifically programmed classical music and experiencing visual imagery, feeling states and body responses as evoked by the music. The therapist engages the client in a dialogue to enhance the experience of the imagery, and to assist the client’s search for creative solutions to unresolved issues. Clients’ issues are often represented in symbolic form. It allows clients to address issues of life and personal growth, and can be used for:

reducing stress and anxiety;

dealing with emotional blocks;

working through loss and grief;

healing childhood traumas;

assisting decision making in times of change;

understanding mind-body connections in illness;

understanding addictive patterns;

stimulating the creative unconscious.

Training is offered to health professionals and practitioners whose primary degree is in an allied health field. It comprises the Certificate in Music-Imagery Methods and the Graduate Diploma in Guided Imagery and Music. The Certificate course is a prerequisite for entry into the Graduate Diploma.

PACFA Section Experiential Therapy

Website link www.musicandimagery.org.au