Bio for Belleruth Naparstek

Psychotherapist, author and guided imagery innovator Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, BCD, has practiced psychotherapy for over 30 years. She is best known as the creator of the popular, 52-title Time Warner Health Journeys guided imagery audio series. Naparstek’s first book, Staying Well with Guided Imagery, (Warner Books) continues to be a widely used primer for medical professionals and health consumers. Her second book, Your Sixth Sense, (Harper San Francisco) has been translated into 8 languages and has been called one of the more thoughtful and sophisticated looks at intuition. Her new book on imagery and posttraumatic stress (Bantam Dell) is due out in Fall of 2004.

She has helped to make guided imagery part of mainstream healthcare by persuading traditional healthcare organizations such as Aetna U.S. Healthcare, the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, GlaxoSmithKline,The American Red Cross, Blue Shield of California, Ortho Biotech, Roche, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Amgen, Kaiser Permanente, and nearly 2000 hospitals, clinics, spas and hospices to distribute her guided imagery recordings, in many instances free of charge.

A warm, dynamic and compelling speaker, Naparstek has lectured across the country and around the world, training thousands of health professionals, corporate leaders, counselors, performing artists and health consumers in the use of her powerful, ground-breaking guided imagery techniques.

Her imagery has been involved in 24 clinical trials, with over a half dozen studies completed to date. Efficacy has been established for several psychological and medical conditions.

Naparstek received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago. For years she taught graduate students at Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. She lives in Cleveland with her family.