Imagery in Client-Therapist Communications

Communication is defined by Webster's as an act or instance of transmitting; a process by which meanings are exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols. Beier1 identified the basic components of the communication process as the sender, the message, and the respondent (an action term more appropriate than receiver). Many variables affect the accuracy and precision of the communication process. The sender's task is to gain access to his experience and transmit it through either verbal or nonverbal channels. The sender may be more or less able to tune into the ongoing exigencies of his life and to translate these experiences into an articulate message. He also may be more or less willing to expose his experiences to others. Communication lines often become crowded and confused as many messages are transmitted simultaneously. The messages often carry both factual and emotional information. And contradictory messages can be sent over different channels at the same time.

The respondent's task is to attend to the factual content of the message as well as the more subtle tonal and nonverbal cues, to organize the incoming information along with the personal meanings it evokes, and to respond in a manner that communicates understanding and continues the dialogue.

Philosophers have long struggled with the problem of other minds. Treatises have been written on the logical difficulty of knowing whether other minds even exist. The possibility of actually understanding another's experience in the world seems remote. Yet every day we engage other human beings in this process called communication. Complex and intricate perceptions, feelings, thoughts and meanings are conveyed by way of gesture, word, and action. The communicator proceeds as if his audience is capable of “understanding” his innermost experiences. The criteria of this understanding is the engendering of some sense of recognition, familiarity, context, or completeness in the audience. How is this fe