Choosing the place
1 min 30[Ask about the sea before you record, if you can. A drowning, a bereavement, a frightening childhood incident — the beach is not neutral ground for everyone, and clients will usually go along with a scene that unsettles them rather than interrupt you. The swap offered in the second block lets them change it without having to explain why.]
Settle somewhere comfortable, and let your eyes close when you are ready. Nothing to do for the next few minutes except listen. [pause for 15 seconds]
We are going to spend some time at the edge of the sea. Before we go, though — if the sea is not a restful place for you, choose somewhere else now. A meadow with long grass. A quiet lakeside. A path through woodland. Anywhere open and unhurried will do, and everything that follows will fit it just as well. You do not need to explain the choice to anyone. [pause for 20 seconds]
So picture the place you have chosen, and put yourself at the edge of it. Early evening. Warm. The light starting to go gold. [pause for 25 seconds]
What you can see
2 min[Sight comes first, and it goes wide before it goes close. Read the descriptive lines slightly slower than conversational, but do not slide into a sing-song — the small drop in pitch at the end of each line does the work.]
Look out in front of you first, at the widest part of the view. Water, or grass, or trees — whatever it is that stretches away from where you are standing. Let it go as far as it wants to go, all the way out to the line where it meets the sky. [pause for 25 seconds]
Notice the colours out there. Not one colour but several. Darker where it is deep or shaded, lighter where the low sun is catching it. Watch the light moving across it. [pause for 30 seconds]
Now bring your eyes closer in. The ground just in front of your feet. Find something small there — a shell, a stone, a leaf, a piece of driftwood. Look at it properly. Its shape, its markings, the little shadow it casts. [pause for 30 seconds]
What you can hear
2 min[Sound is where a scene becomes convincing, so give these pauses their full length. If this client tends to drift or dissociate, keep your voice a shade brighter here and shorten the final pause by half.]
Let the sound of the place arrive. There will be one sound underneath all the others — water arriving and drawing back, or wind moving through grass and branches. A rhythm that does not need you to keep it going. [pause for 30 seconds]
Listen to how it repeats. It is not quite regular. Each one is a little different from the last, and there is a quiet gap in between. [pause for 30 seconds]
Then the smaller sounds around it. A bird somewhere. Something far off that you cannot quite place. And behind all of it, how quiet this place is. [pause for 30 seconds]
Warmth and air
1 min 30[Temperature and smell are the two senses most scripts skip, and they are the ones that make a scene feel lived in rather than looked at. Give the scent line its full pause — it often brings a memory with it, and the client needs room for that.]
Notice the temperature on your skin. Warmth on your face and your forearms from the last of the sun. And moving over the top of it, cooler air. Enough to notice, not enough to be cold. [pause for 25 seconds]
Take a slow breath in through your nose, and notice what the air smells of. Salt and seaweed, or cut grass, or warm earth, or pine. Whatever belongs to your place. [pause for 30 seconds]
Underfoot, and resting
2 min[The long silence at the end of this segment is the point of the whole script. Time it on a clock rather than feeling your way through it — a shortened silence here is what makes a visualisation feel hurried.]
Bring your attention down to your feet. Feel what is underneath them. Sand giving way slightly under your heels, or dry grass, or soft ground. Let your weight settle down into it. [pause for 20 seconds]
Find somewhere to sit, or to lie down, and let the ground hold you. Nothing else to look at. Nothing that has to be done with the rest of this evening. [pause for 20 seconds]
Rest here a while, with that sound going on beside you. [pause for 60 seconds]
Coming back
1 min[Bring your voice back up into a normal speaking register for the final block — the return should be as deliberate as the opening. Give the client a minute of quiet before you ask them anything or have them stand up.]
In a moment we are going to leave. Have one last look around. The wide view, the sound of it, the ground underneath you. It stays exactly as it is while you are away. [pause for 20 seconds]
Now bring your attention back to the room you are in, and the surface underneath you. Feel your hands, and your feet. Take one fuller breath. [pause for 15 seconds]
Have a stretch if you would like one, and open your eyes. You built that place yourself, out of nothing but a voice and ten minutes — which means you already know the way back to it.