Creating Pictures in Your Mind
By Joe Donahue
My wife had been discussing family history with her mother and her mother was unable to continue. I was listening and asked if she remembered what the wall was made of right next to her house....Then....."Did you have a path open or was it narrow...with the house next door right nearby?" ( since this was not a specific 'person' query it became a pattern interrupt, albeit with an indirect focus ( the pathway rather than the person living in the house), to remember the nearby 'items' which would appear to have no purpose other than to describe the location.)
She thought for a moment and replied that it was a long path leading down to the back of the house. I let her think for a moment and asked her to describe what the path looked like, the exterior walls of the house, the pathway underfoot.....was it dirt or rocks......... 'What did it sound like to walk down to the back?" I inquired.
She replied that it made "noise" under her feet... and was composed of 'tiny little rocks". I never used the term image or picture, but substitute "look, feel like, sound it made" and just let her 'slide' into what was an obvious perception from the past. The memories came shortly after.I have done the same with the question" What was your favorite toy?
And then ask for a description. In this manner the image is produced from a specific memory/object and then grows larger to include other items or events. Usually this results in a flood of memories around the time frame remembered.
The memory object may not be directly related to the person or event of interest but it can accompany that desired remembrance.
One note of caution, however, it may also release unhappy memories that are attached in some synaptic manner to these events or items. The person may not identify 'it' as a visual memory...but the effect is the same! Don't be too quick to follow one directive query with another. Keep a safe place to go back to and leave time ......( pacing) between answers and let the the good stuff happen. Throw away your own agenda and pay close attention to 'theirs'. Let the magic begin!
Joe Donahue