The Imagined House Exercise

The house often is a symbol of the self, one's own

personality. In this exercise I lead my students through a
mental imagery scene in which they explore a house in
their imagination. Afterwards, we discuss how the various
characteristics of the house may say something about their own personality -
similar to dream interpretation. We pay attention to such details as how the house
appears on the inside as opposed to the outside, what can and cannot be found
inside the house, how one gets into the house, what's inside the secret room,
colors, textures, how space is experienced, etc. All of these details may have
symbolic significance. !tudents often are ama"ed at what the imagined house says
about them.
This exercise wor#s particularly well along with the $irculating %apers
Techni&ue. After we complete the imagery exercise, the students write down and
then circulate to other students a description of what they saw in their
imagination. The feedbac# provided by other students often is eye-opening. In
fact, I am always impressed by how insightful some students can be.
'ere is the narration that I use to guide the students through the imagery scene. I
pause between sentences to allow students time to form the image in their
imagination(
)ou are wal#ing down a road.... As you are wal#ing, you see a house. *oo# at it.
+otice its details.... Wal# towards it. What do you notice about it,.... )ou start to
wal# around the house, loo#ing at it as you wal#.... +ow you are halfway around.
+otice the details of the house as you continue to wal# around it.... +ow you
come bac# to where you were when you started.... As you wal#ed around the
house, you noticed a way to get in. +ow go into the house.... What do you see,....
-xplore the house, what's inside,.... As you were exploring, you noticed a secret
door leading to a secret room. .o inside that room. What do you see,.... +ow
leave the secret room and go bac# into the main part of the house.... +ow leave
the house. As you are wal#ing away from it, you loo# bac# at it one more time....
)ou are bac# on the road once again, wal#ing.
This exercise also wor#s well for exploring the identity/personality of a small group. After
someone leads the group through this imagery scene, the group members discuss what they each
visuali"ed. 0ased on that discussion, the group together then visually constructs one house that
seems to capture the personality of the group and all of its members. $omparing the houses
created by different groups can result in some fascinating insights into the uni&ue personality of
each group