Why it works
Jung found that the inner figures we usually dismiss have something to say. Engaging them consciously — rather than being run by them — is how the disowned parts of a person get a seat at the table.
Technique ·Analytical (Jungian)
Active Imagination
Entering a daydream on purpose and letting its figures take on a life of their own — then meeting and questioning them, awake.
Helpful for
Midlife questionsCreative blocksBecoming whole
How it's done
Practising it, step by step
A few moves that carry the method — in a therapy room, or in small ways, on your own.
- 1 Drop in Relax, lower the lights, and let an image rise unbidden — a place, a figure, a mood. Don't manufacture it; wait for it.
- 2 Let it move Allow the scene to unfold on its own. Watch what the figures do rather than directing them.
- 3 Engage it Speak to what appears, and let it answer. Treat it as real enough to have its own will.
- 4 Bring it back Record what happened — in words, image or movement — and consider what the encounter asks you to integrate.
Try it yourself
Reflect in the app Close your eyes for three minutes and let one image appear. Ask it a single question — and wait to see what it does.
Where it lives
The therapy that uses it
Who shaped it
The thinker behind it
Bring it to your own life
Questions in this spirit
A technique is just a method until you turn it inward. Answer one.
From method to habit
Make Active Imagination a few honest minutes a day.
Psipas turns the simplest of these techniques into a daily ritual — one question, one answer, a picture that grows.