A comprehensive manual of relaxation and imagery exercises

The purpose of this manual is to provide a comprehensive series of exercises which can be easily utilized and adapted by a therapeutic recreation specialist or other practitioner. An exploratory investigation was conducted to obtain information about the usefulness of the imagery and relaxation exercises presented in the manual and to determine specific strengths and weaknesses within the exercises. Because of the limitations of this study, conclusions are only applicable to elementary school age, trainable, mentally retarded students and chronic psychiatric patients. However, the literature review provides for a more general application as to the benefits of relaxation and imagery exercises in combination with other forms of treatment. The review of the literature indicates that while the research is relatively limited with respect to the effects of relaxation and imagery training in conjunction with other therapies, supportive evidence has led.to surprising reducibility in the following areas: developing self-concept, increasing memory, increasing attention span, reducing behavior problems, and learning positive internal dialogue. (See more in text.)