Imagery Rescripting (ImRs) has received increasing attention as a treatment for disorders associated with aversive memories or images. Many individuals who experience a persistent and impairing form of grief, referred to as prolonged grief disorder (PGD), also experience images related to the deceased or the death. Given its focus on addressing aversive images, ImRs may be a promising addition to grief therapy targeting PGD. This webinar highlights the role of mental images in PGD and outlines how ImRs can be applied to target different themes in PGD, including unsatisfactory goodbyes, unfinished business, unfulfillable responsibilities, guilt, and self-blame.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize which mental images are associated with severity of PGD symptoms.
2. Describe ImRs and its rationale for using ImRs in the treatment of PGD.
3. Identify themes in PGD that can be targeted with ImRs.

About the Presenter:

Prof. Dr. Franziska Lechner-Meichsner is a full professor for Clinical-psychological Intervention at the University of Wuppertal (Germany) and affiliated with Utrecht University (the Netherlands). She previously held positions at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany), was a visiting research scientist at Columbia University’s Center for Prolonged Grief, and served as Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University.

Her research centers on loss- and trauma-related disorders, with a particular focus on the treatment of prolonged grief disorder, imagery rescripting, culturally-sensitive interventions, and identifying processes that make treatments work. She has authored peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on these topics in international collaborations. Franziska Lechner-Meichsner is also a licensed cognitive-behavioral therapist with a specialization in psychotraumatology, a member of the Bereavement Network Europe, and has a strong ambition to bring research findings into clinical practice.