Charlotte Reznick PhD

Presentations and Workshops Available:

Dr. Charlotte Reznick's real-world experience and clinical expertise are conveyed with unique warmth, humor, and enthusiasm. Parents, physicians, therapists, teachers, nurses, hospital staff – anyone who works with children – will be delighted and enlightened by Dr. Reznick's rich visuals and experiential activities.

Presentations can range from one hour lectures up to weekend workshops and can be tailored to meet each group's specific needs.

Comments From Participants

"Excellent. Best of weekend!"

"Great Work. Thanks for sharing."

"Easy to feel your love. Thank You!"

"Loved your use of humor and artwork."

"Thank you for helping our children heal."

"Wonderful stories of case examples to illustrate techniques."

"Very dynamic speaker. Interesting. Helpful suggestions, techniques."

"She's amazing. Should be experienced by anyone who works with children."

Comments after Dr. Reznick's Keynote Address to the 
Academy for Guided Imagery's Annual Conference, 
Co-sponsored by Beyond Ordinary Nursing and Imagery International 
Asilomar, California

More Comments From Participants

"Outstanding human being, teacher, communicator. Very useful/effective/enjoyable! Wow."

"You are great. How wonderful that your spirit and love is available to children to help them bring out theirs."

"This was a great session! Very practical and helpful. I'd like to work with Charlotte again. Please bring her back."

"This was terrific. I feel inspired and confident in working with imagery and kids and I also (during the guided imagery exercise) resolved the personal problem that had been bugging me throughout the conference."

Comments above are from Dr. Reznick's presentation to the
Psychology of Health, Immunity and Disease Conference
The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine
Hilton Head, South Carolina

Comments From Organizers 

I can't thank you enough for your workshop presentation Sunday. It was informative, applicable, and fun. Your expertise shined in every aspect of your presentation and we are grateful for your participation and generosity of spirit. Wishing you much success in your continued endeavors."

Lynda Levy, M.A., 
Vice President & Program Chair, LA-CAMFT    

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for a marvelous presentation. I heard nothing but wonderful things about your talk and how great you are!!!!! Needless to say, we will be knocking on your door next year."

Patti and Chuck Leviton Ed.D.
Synergy Seminars
Fountain Valley, California    

"On behalf of the interns and trainees at the Antioch University Counseling Center I want to express my thanks for your presentation on Imagery For Kids. Your presentation was extremely well thought out and the experience so positive ... the guided imagery and drawing experiences were also very powerful in both demonstrating the tools and helping the therapists access their own inner resources. I look forward to working with you in the future and watching your ideas take hold in the AUCC trainees." 

Bonnie H. Wolkenstein, Ph.D. 
Director 
Antioch University Counseling Center 

Marina Del Rey, California  

"The challenges of growing up in today’s rapidly changing society are enormous. Children need to be equipped with skills for survival and growth that were never before imagined. I focus on teaching children and adolescents self-healing and self-control techniques that will empower them to realize their potential throughout their lifetime."  

Exploring and integrating new paradigms to improve psychological health of children and their families has been the focus of my career.  My dissertation, “The long-term effects of parental divorce on adolescent academic achievement and psycho-social development: A study of vulnerable and resilient children” earned honors and “dissertation of the year” from USC’s Department of Educational Psychology.  That research was later published in two articles (“Long-term effects of divorce on adolescent academics,” Journal of Divorce and “Long-term effects of parental divorce on young adult crime,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence) and one book chapter (“Divorce and Family Instability,” in Influences on Human Development: A Longitudinal Perspective). 

After earning my Ph.D., I turned my attention to the area of coping skills that I and others have shown help vulnerable children be resilient in the face of stresses from divorce and other life challenges.  For the past 25 years, my professional practice and clinical research studied the power of children’s imagination through visualization, imagery, and meditation.

Starting out as a psychologist in inner city schools of South Central LA, I worked with many desperate children looking for hope of a better life who were not helped by traditional interventions.  These children needed to be armed with effective psychological tools that were easy to incorporate into their stressed lives to help them not only to survive, but to thrive.  I was drawn to research, first performed with adults, attesting to the success of guided imagery in physical and mental health.

Integrating this research with the needs of children I worked with daily, I began, year by year, to develop a successful positive coping skills program using guided and interactive imagery – enhanced by music, relaxation skills, drawing, and non-dominant journal writing.  My work has gone beyond using simple guided imageries often noted in research, to focus on developing specific interactive tools that can be individualized and utilized in a variety of life situations. Extending my work from lower to middle and upper socioeconomic levels in the private sector showed that these imagery and meditation tools were effective regardless of SES or ethnicity.

Areas of practical application have been in: stress reduction, anxiety and pain control, overcoming fears, reducing somatic illness (headaches, stomachaches, tics), coping with loss (e.g. divorce and death), healing past abuse, handling anger and frustration, overcoming sleep disorders (including bedwetting), improving peer and sibling interactions, increasing academic and sports achievement.  Through numerous case studies I have found nine tools, used either singly or in combination (depending on the problem to be overcome), that have helped children to live happier, healthier, and more productive lives. 

To help advance these practices in pediatric psychology, I have written over 25 articles on the application of imagery treatment with children in various professional and lay journals and magazines.  I have also presented this innovative work at professional conferences and workshops to thousands of psychologists, therapists, physicians, nurses, educators, and parents across the U.S., and abroad, and at over 70 organizations such as the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, St. John’s Hospital, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, California Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists. I was invited to Seoul, South Korea to speak to the Asian Pacific Psychology Association and train professors of psychology, medical doctors, therapists, students, and parents on how to apply my evolving imagery techniques to their culture.  I have been requested to visit Israel to teach how this program can help bridge the gap between Israeli and Palestinian children.  My working knowledge of Spanish and French and experience living abroad will enable me to bring this new psychological information to many cultures around the world.

I have authored and produced two therapeutic guided imagery CDs, which serve as the foundation for children to learn skills to go within and access the wisdom of their inner world (often as dreams draw from the unconscious). The CDs, Discovering A Special Place and Creating a Magical Garden and Healing Pond, have been well received by professionals, parents, and children.  Upcoming will be Climbing a Mountain of Success.  My website, www.ImageryForKids.com, active for the past several years, enables professionals and parents easy access to my articles and CDs. Additionally, a study with two children’s hospitals showed the efficacy of Creating a Magical Garden and Healing Pond in decreasing pain and increasing relaxation in post-surgical pediatric patients.

 I have written The Power of Your Child's Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success, a book geared toward parents, health-care professionals, and educators published by Perigee (Penguin Group) in August 2009.  It outlines specifically how to teach children these creative and effective ways to cope with their emotions and successfully deal with difficulties in life. Rather than give children answers, they learn tools to find solutions for themselves, apply them to their lives, enabling them to understand and participate in their own psychological development and growth.

I invite you to my website www.ImageryForKids.com for further background, articles, and information on therapeutic CDs, books, and speaking presentations.

Charlotte Reznick PhD Imagery For Kids 11911 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 240 - Brentwood Los Angeles, CA 90049 Phone: 310/889-7859 Email:DrReznick@ImageryForKids.com Website: www.ImageryForKids.com