Integrating words, images, and text in BMGIM: Finding connections through semiotic intertextuality

Abstract

An innovative application of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (BMGIM) was researched involving six clients who had undergone complex cardiac surgery. This psychodynamic method led patients through a reflective and exploratory experience combining imagery, selected classical music, and sensitive verbal interventions into an experience rather like an unfolding waking dream with a musical soundtrack. Text produced during these audiotaped sessions was analyzed for semiotic meanings. The analytical framework drew upon a Jungian interpretive system working intertextually across several different kinds of narrative, identified within each patient's story. Text from 31 BMGIM sessions was used in the analysis. Findings indicate that this approach has the capacity to integrate all aspects of the BMGIM therapeutic session and deliver a depth of experiential meaning relevant to the therapeutic management of clients' post-surgical recovery. In doing so, it expanded our knowledge of BMGIM practice in the healthcare setting, and contributed further research capacity to this complex treatment modality.