Imagine That! The Power of Your Imagination to Relax, Cope, Learn and Heal –
Dr. Franco’s Voice America podcast series: Fall 2019
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About The Host: Dr. Miriam Franco is a psychologist with a specialty in treating anxiety and chronic illness. She is certified in guided imagery and is also a Multiple Sclerosis specialist. Dr. Franco has conducted workshops nationally teaching people with auto immune disorders how to use relaxation and guided imagery to lower mood and improve coping and caregivers to relieve stress and worry effectively and quickly. Dr. Franco has taught guided imagery to athletes, students, brides-to-be, mothers-to-be, care partners, health professionals and the chronically ill. Her app, Imagery Work, provides niche guided imagery tracks for specific populations and needs. Dr. Franco is on the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America’s Health Care Council and is a National MS Society Health Care Partner. She is a frequent contributor to MS magazines, podcasts and is a regular guest speaker at MS patient and professional programs. As a Professor Emeritus of Immaculata University, she brings both academic knowledge and her direct clinical experience to guest interviews, covering a range of inter-disciplinary topics on how the power of harnessing one’s imagination can improve healing, learning, coping and performance

About The Show: Explore how the power of your imagination can be harnessed to improve your mood, coping, healing, listening and performance! A seasoned psychotherapist, university professor and relaxation and guided imagery specialist, Dr. Franco brings both her academic knowledge and years of clinical experience to her guest interviews. Each week, she hosts health entrepreneurs, therapists, artists, innovators and guided imagery specialists to discuss how one’s imagination can be used to treat stress, anxiety, manage autoimmune disorders, cope with challenging life events or ways to expand performance. Dr. Franco guides us to stretch our imaginations with playful curiosity and to learn how to have fun incorporating new techniques into our daily lives and life challenges. Come relax, listen-in Tuesdays at 12Noon Pacific Time on the VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Channel, and discover ways you can tap into your imagination to expand your well-being and knowledge.

IMAGINE THAT!   SCHEDULE OF GUESTS

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  9/3    The Power of Your Imagination to Relax.

In her first podcast, our host, Dr. Miriam Franco, explores how to become deeply relaxed by using simple yet powerful Relaxation & Guided Imagery techniques that utilize your breath, imagination and your senses to let go of stress, anxiety and fatigue and increase rest, energy and balance. The advantages of these techniques to cope with chronic illness or for the highly anxious will also be examined.

  9/10    Conscious Wellness. Heather Grutzmacher

Drawing on her experience as a professional dancer, yoga, barre, pilates instructor, and wellness entrepreneur, Heather Grutzmacher identifies her essential approach to personal wellness and work wellness programs to maximize health, fitness and self-awareness.

  9/17    The Power of Your Child’s Imagination. Dr. Charlotte Reznick  

Child psychologist and author of the best- selling book: The Power of Your Child’s Imagination; Dr. Charlotte Reznick will guide parents on how they can teach  their children Guided Imagery to promote healthy coping and expand their intuitive and creative processes.

   9/24  Drawn to Intuition. Marianne Mitchell

Marianne Mitchell, an accomplished, intuitive, abstract artist, was asked by others how do you do what you do?  She will describe her process of guiding non-artists and medical residents to connect to their intellectual, physical and emotional, intuitive capacities to develop a more integrative experience of painting and self-expansiveness.

10/01 Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster. Peggy Huddleston

Peggy Huddleston, M.A., has developed one of the most successful Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster programs at hospitals throughout America.  Her Guided Imagery process to cope with surgery and recovery will be explored by one of her early students: Dr. Franco, the host of Imagine That!

 10/08    Power of Imagination to Unlock and Heal Traumatic Events. Janine de Peyer, LCSW  

Janine de Peyer, LCSW, a New York psychotherapist, Integrative Psychoanalyst, Speaker and Author, specializes in using techniques such as EMDR and creative visualization to engage the body and imagination to shift negative belief systems and engage natural healing processes.  She describes how imaginative processes are key tools to  help her clients access painful memories and improve their coping. Her research on telepathy, unconscious communication and Virtual Reality as a mechanism to promote healing are also addressed.    

10/15    Stressless with MS.  Yvette Brisco

Yvette Briscoe, a Multiple Sclerosis advocate and working mother with MS, hosts  a successful podcast series: Surviving and Thriving with MS to help  empower others to cope, relieve stress and stigma while living with MS.  She discusses with, Dr. Franco, a MS specialist, how Guided Imagery can be an effective tool to reduce stress and improve healing with auto-immune disorders. 

10/22   Relieve Caregiver Stress. Elissa Lewin. 

Elissa Lewin, the Founder of Nancy’s-House, a Caregiver Respite Program in the greater Philadelphia area, identifies the challenges of caregiving and need to provide effective, stress reduction techniques and community support to caregivers.

10/29   Do Animals Imagine? Dr. Stephanie Theodorou

Dr. Stephanie Theodorou, a Professor of Philosophy, has published on theories of consciousness and the realm of animal consciousness.  She will explore whether animals have an imagination and, if so, how it mirrors or differs from the imaginative processes of humans. How animals think and emote is also examined to consider what we can learn from animal cognitive processes to shed light on our own. 

11/05 Shrinks on Third.  Drs. Cindy Ariel & Julia Mayer

Dr. Franco’s two guests: psychologists Julia Mayer and Cindy Ariel, co-host a podcast series called: Shrinks on Third. Their podcast spotlights diverse and underrepresented people and organizations working to create positive change from within the field of psychology or those on the ground working for social justice. Dr. Franco explores their motivation to develop this unique podcast series and the process by which social change is first imagined, then created.

11/12  Ageless Women. Dr. Susan Matyas

Dr. Matyas has developed a wonderful webinar series on Ageless-Women. She  interviews guests who have developed notable ways to both imagine and create meaningful work, purpose and self- development in the 2nd or 3rd acts of their lives. Dr. Franco will ‘interview the interviewer’ to explore the creative process involved in promoting, advocating and teaching older women to re-imagine and re-invent themselves.  

11/19  De-Stress for MS Youth. Dr. Mary Rensel 

Dr. Mary Rensel is a Staff Neurologist and Director of Wellness and Pediatric MS at The Cleveland Clinic Mellan Center for Multiple Sclerosis.  She joins Dr. Franco, a MS Specialist, to explore the particular challenges of living with MS as a teen and the need to teach and expand wellness skills to promote coping and life-long resilience.

11/26  Stressfree Bride.   Beke Beau 

Beke Beau, M.A., a successful make- up artist for brides and mature women, shares her years of working with brides and bridal stress and what helps them cope and creatively attend to their natural beauty and capacities.  Beke Beau also teaches teens and women how to expand their awareness and use of make-up to acquire a natural beauty and glow.

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