Why this workshop exists
Most popular techniques for managing stress, anxiety, and racing thoughts assume you can picture things in your mind. Guided meditations ask you to imagine a peaceful beach. Therapy exercises ask you to revisit a memory and notice how it looks. Self-help books suggest visualising your future self.
If you have aphantasia, none of that works the way it's supposed to. And the most common response — feeling like you're the one doing it wrong — adds another layer of frustration on top of whatever brought you to the technique in the first place.
There is nothing wrong with you. The tools are simply built for a different kind of mind.
This workshop is about what actually works when visualisation isn't available to you.
What you'll learn
Across a single live session, Paulina will cover:
- How the aphantasic mind processes stress and emotion — including why standard mindfulness and visualisation-based techniques often fall flat, and what's actually happening in your nervous system when they do
- Practical, aphantasia-friendly techniques for calming the mind — grounded in attention and the body rather than mental imagery, simple enough to use the same day
- Live Q&A — bring your own experiences and questions
You don't need any prior experience with meditation, hypnotherapy, or self-help work. The workshop is designed to be useful whether this is your first attempt at managing stress or your hundredth.
Who this is for
People with aphantasia (and people exploring whether they have it) who:
- Experience stress, anxiety, or difficulty switching off
- Have tried standard techniques for calming the mind — like meditation, visualisation, or guided imagery — and felt like they weren't landing
- Are curious about what non-visual approaches to mental wellbeing actually look like in practice
- Want practical tools they can use straight away, not theory
This is a workshop, not a clinical session. Paulina won't be providing individual therapy or diagnosis. If you're looking for ongoing one-to-one support, she offers that separately through her own practice.
Aphantasia Network members get 10% off, applied automatically at checkout
About Paulina
Dr Paulina Trevena is a hypnotherapist, researcher, and international speaker specialising in aphantasia and non-visual approaches to wellbeing. She has global aphantasia herself, which shapes everything she teaches — her approach is built from the inside, adapted from her research, her one-to-one client work, and her own experience of finding that the standard playbook didn't fit. She helps people understand how their minds work and develop practical strategies for managing anxiety, stress, and personal growth without relying on visualisation.
She's a long-time member of the Aphantasia Network community, and we're delighted to be hosting her first workshop with us.
A note on this workshop
This is the first time the Aphantasia Network has hosted a workshop with an outside practitioner. We're treating it as a pilot — both for us and for the community. If it works well, we'll be bringing more practical, applied programming from trusted experts in the months ahead.
If you have feedback during or after the session, we'd love to hear it. Your input shapes what we host next.