One-Day Workshop: Using Imagery and Mental Simulations to Promote Health Behaviour Change

The global burden of chronic non-communicable illnesses is closely linked to behavior (Ford, Zhao, Tsai, & Li, 2011; World Health Organization, 2014). Interventionists and researchers seeking to develop effective behavioral interventions aimed at chronic disease prevention have turned to psychology and behavioral science to provide evidence-based techniques and strategies to promote sustained, self-initiated behavior change that obviates the need for costly in-person and intensive methods. Prominent among these strategies are imagery techniques. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce participants to mental imagery techniques, evaluate the evidence to support their use in health contexts, identify the key features of the techniques and how they can be used for behaviour change, and to learn how to apply them in clinical and health behaviour contexts. Participants will be introduced to a manual that specifies how to change behaviour using these techniques and will be involved in interactive sessions to practice the technique. It is suitable for experienced and early-career researchers.