Relaxation with guided imagery: effects on employees' psychological distress and health seeking behaviors

1. Relaxation with guided imagery (RGI) has been successfully used for controlling acute pain, emotional distress, anxiety, and depression in a chronically ill population. Only a few studies have examined RGI as a therapeutic modality for reducing psychological distress and facilitating improvement in health behaviors. 2. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of RGI on decreasing psychological distress and improving health seeking behaviors with a working population. 3. The practice of RGI did not significantly reduce employees' psychological distress or improve their health seeking behaviors. However, anecdotal data suggest that RGI may be useful for some individuals. 4. Because RGI is a simple, inexpensive, and non-invasive technique that most employees can do on their own, additional research efforts are needed to support its effectiveness.