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Imagery Rescripting of Early Traumatic Memories in Social Phobia
Open accessAbstract
Negative self-images appear to play a role in the maintenance of social phobia and research suggests they are often linked to earlier memories of socially traumatic events. Imagery rescripting is a clinical intervention that aims to update such unpleasant or traumatic memories, and is increasingly being incorporated in cognitive behavioral therapy programs. In previous research, we have found that imagery rescripting was superior to a control condition in terms of its beneficial effects on negative beliefs, image and memory distress, fear of negative evaluation, and anxiety in social situations. In this article, we describe our imagery rescripting procedure. We consider the importance of updating negative imagery in social phobia, the theoretical basis for imagery rescripting, directions for future research, and how to conduct imagery rescripting, including potential problems and their solutions.
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“Preliminary research has also shown promising results of clinical interventions that specifically focus on threat imagery in anxiety disorders, such as imagery rescripting [34–37] or EMDR therapy [38–40].”
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“Individuals with anxiety disorders are often bothered by intrusive thoughts and images.”
From Changes in perceived centrality of anxious events following cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder and panic disorder (2018) · cites this paper as Wild & Clark, 2011
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“Second, negative imagery motivates patients to use safety-seeking behaviors, which can interfere with their social performance and make them appear less interested in other people than they really are (Alden & Taylor, 2004; Clark & Wells, 1995; Hirsch, Meynen, & Clark, 2004; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997).”
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“Finally, conducting much of the procedure in imagery may be beneficial: it may engender the experience of having had a concrete experience (Epstein, 1994).”
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“Imagery rescripting techniques have been used as major components of CBT programs for borderline personality disorder (Giesen-Bloo et al., 2006), bulimia (Cooper, Todd, & Turner, 2007), and posttraumatic stress disorder arising from childhood sexual abuse (Smucker & Neiderdee, 1995).”
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Background8 Cognitieve therapie bij sociale-angststoornis
Voncken, M. J., & Bögels, S. M. (2011) · Bohn Stafleu van Loghum eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-90-313-8310-8_8 · Cited by 2
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“Mental imagery is one of the key contributors to the maintenance of SAD (Wild & Clark, 2011).”
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“A single session of imagery rescripting reportedly reduced distress associated with memories for a small sample ( n = 14) of people with social phobia, and these improvements were maintained at 1 week follow-up (Wild and Clark, 2011).”
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Winter, H. R., Norton, A. R., & Wootton, B. M. (2025) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2025.104914 · Cited by 2
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“Memorised events could in this respect vary from being bullied at school to performing poorly in a meeting (Wild & Clark, 2011).”
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“Socially traumatic events have been defined as extremely unpleas-ant social events during which the individual experiences intense anxiety and perceives ridicule or rejection by others (Wild & Clark, 2011) and can be perceived as extremely threatening to the social self (Idsoe et al., 2021).”
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Kotrbová, K., & Vashkova, M. (2024) · Medicine and Art · doi:10.60042/2949-2165-2024-2-2-80-94 · Cited by 1
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Metadata
- Authors
- Wild, J., & Clark, D. M.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Wild, Jennifer
- Venue
- Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-11
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 433-443
- ISSN
- 1077-7229 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3267018
- OpenAlex
- W2028662332
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 9.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Cognitive and Behavioral Practice (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (069777)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- imagery rescripting, social anxiety disorder, traumatic memory, negative self-concept, cognitive behavioral therapy, fear of negative evaluation, memory updating, anxiety
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