Can imagery help with the itching as burn patients heal?
BR, I work with children and adults healing from burn trauma at a local childrens hospital burn center. Do you think imagery and relaxation could help with the “itch” problem in healing burn injury? The children do a great deal of damage scratching and complicate their recovery. Christopher Dear Christopher, Yes, because an “itch” is a perception, refocusing perception somewhere else with a powerfully immersive, multi-sensory technique like guided imagery can definitely mitigate the itch, at least for a while, by creating competing stimuli that override the itch stimulus. Most adults and practically all kids (who tend to be especially good at this to begin with), can thus develop for themselves a skill that gets stronger and stronger with repeated use. So any “escape” imagery with powerfully evocative words and music, will do well at seducing attentional focus away from the itch. In addition, it’s a self-mastery skill that will help for pain, anxiety and other issues related to healing
