Imagine That!: Recent Episodes
Dr. Miriam Franco
Explore how the power of your imagination can be harnessed to improve your mood, coping, healing, listening and performance! A seasoned psychotherapist, university professor and relaxation and guided imagery specialist, Dr. Franco brings both her academic knowledge and years of clinical experience to her guest interviews. Each week, she hosts health entrepreneurs,therapists, artists, innovators and guided imagery specialists to discuss how one’s imagination can be used to treat stress, anxiety, manage autoimmune disorders, cope with challenging life events or ways to expand performance. Dr. Franco guides us to stretch our imaginations with playful curiosity and to learn how to have fun incorporating new techniques into our daily lives and life challenges.
Beke Beau, a successful makeup artist for brides and mature women, shares with Dr. Franco her years of working with brides and bridal stress. Beke also teaches teens and women how to expand their awareness and use of makeup to acquire a natural beauty and glow. We explore what helps brides cope and creatively attend to their natural beauty and capacities.
Dr. Mary Rensel is Director of Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis and Wellness at the Mellen Center of the Cleveland Clinic. She joins Dr. Franco, a MS specialist and psychologist, to explore the particular challenges of living with MS as a teen and the need to teach and expand wellness skills to promote coping and life-long resilience.
Dr. Matyas, Ph.D., has developed a wonderful webinar series called: Ageless Woman. She interviews guests who have developed notable ways to both imagine and create meaningful work, purpose and self-empowerment in the 2nd or 3rd acts of their lives. Dr. Franco will interview the interviewer to explore the creative process involved in promoting, advocating and teaching older women to re-imagine and re-invent themselves.
Free gift: a 30 minute Clarity Coaching Call: download link:
https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=17057169&appointmentType=9708337
Dr. Franco's two guests: psychologists Julie Mayer and Cindy Ariel, co-host a podcast series called: Shrinks on Third. Their podcast spotlights diverse and underrepresented people and organizations in the Philadelphia area working to create positive change from within the field of psychology or those on the ground working for social justice. Dr. Franco explores their motivation and success in developing this unique podcast series and the process by which social change is first imagined and then created.
Dr. Stephanie Theodorou, a Professor of Philosophy, has published on theories of consciousness and the realm of animal consciousness. Dr. Theodorou and Dr. Franco explore whether animals have an imagination and, if so, how it mirrors or differs from the imaginative processes of humans. How animals think and emote is also explored to learn what we can learn from animal cognitive processes to shed light on our own.
Elissa, Lewin, M.A., the Founder of Nancy's-House, a Caregiver Respite Program in the greater Philadelphia area, explores with Dr. Franco the challenges of caregiving and the need to provide effective, stress reduction techniques and community support to caregivers.
Yvette Brisco, is a Multiple Sclerosis advocate, Health and Wellness Coach, and a working mother with MS. She has developed a successful podcast series: Surviving and Thriving with MS to help others empower themselves to cope, relieve stress and stigma while living with MS. She discusses with our host, Dr. Franco, a psychologist and a MS specialist, how Guided Imagery can be an effective tool to reduce stress and improve healing with auto-immune disorders.
A free gift is available to listeners at:
https://www.YvetteBrisco.com/Energetic
Are you haunted by bad memories? Do you wish your past had less power over you?
Our guest this week, Janine de Peyer, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in New York City who engages in the power of the imagination to unlock and heal past traumatic events. With training in psychoanalysis, addictions and family therapy, she discusses with Dr. Franco how she incorporates interactive techniques that get to the core of where clients are stuck, thereby shifting longstanding negative patterns. Integrating methods that engage the body, such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), an approach that allows memories frozen in time to be released from the nervous system, Janine finds that negative memories no longer have the same hold. Rather, a richer, more joyous live experience becomes possible.
Dr. Franco and Janine also explore recent breakthroughs in Virtual Reality technology in the development of empathy and the treatment of phobias, social anxiety, stress and physical pain.
Peggy Huddleston, M.S. is a pioneer in mind body medicine. She has developed one of the most successful Prepare for Surgery programs at hospitals throughout America. Research shows that her technique significantly reduces anxiety before surgery, lessens the use of pain medication by 23 50 percentage and can speed healing. Her Guided Imagery process to cope with surgery and recovery will be explored by one of her early students: Dr. Miriam Franco, the host of Imagine That
Marianne Mitchell, an accomplished, intuitive, abstract artist, was asked by others: How do you do what you do? Dr. Franco invites Ms. Mitchell to describe her process of guiding non artists and medical residents to connect to their intellectual, physical and emotional capacities to develop a more integrative experience of painting and self expansiveness.
Dr. Reznick is a nationally recognized child psychologist and author of the best selling book: The Power of Your Childs Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success. Dr. Reznick joins Dr. Franco to explore how parents can learn easy, effective and creative skills to empower their children to handle lifes daily struggles. Dr. Reznick will share her nine core tools to help children cope with stress and anxiety by tapping into their imagination to access their own natural strength and confidence.
Dr. Reznick offers a wonderful heart opening meditation for the whole family to enjoy, selected from her popular CD, The Cave of Great Wisdom for Parent Support. These healing words and music can be listened to together by children and parents. Download this free gift at:
https://www.imageryforkids.com/gift_heart_centered.html
In this episode, Dr. Franco and her guest Heather Grutzmacher explore the concept of Conscious Wellness and its multiple benefits. Drawing on her experience as a professional dancer, yoga, barre, pilates instructor and wellness entrepreneur, Heather shares her essential approach to personal wellness and work wellness programs to maximize health, fitness and self awareness.
Dr. Franco, the Host of Imagine That, is a psychologist and Guided Imagery specialist. For her first show, she will explore and demonstrate how powerful our imaginative processes can be in helping us let go of stress, prepare for challenging life events and improve daily coping. Listeners can learn introductory relaxation techniques that when combined with sensory images evoke rapid shifts in perception, mood and behavior and can be practiced easily at work, before sleep or during transitions in the day.
Witnessing the power of your own imagination to help you relax will set the stage to better understand how Dr. Francos guests on Imagine That use imagination to learn, expand creative processes and performance,and promote coping and healing.