How ImaginationGYM® Started
By Rosaleen Durkin (B.Ed. M.K.A.I)

The idea to create a series of programs began  as far back as 1998. At that time I had spent 10 years working as an Elementary School (primary school) teacher in Ireland, working with children aged 4-12 years, mainly in socially deprived areas. I had also spent 6 years doing Educational and Nutritional Kinesiology in a clinic I had set up in 1992.

My experience as a teacher made me very aware of the stress and pressures parents, teachers and children are under on a daily basis.
I began to fully appreciate the importance of relaxation, self-esteem, emotional balance and creativity to enhance the learning process.

I developed and researched many of my ideas at that time and incorporated relaxation techniques, music, creative writing and drawing, right/left brain integration into the class schedule. The design of the series of audio stories and activity books for children began to take shape with the methodology based on right/left brain integration work, imagination and fun.

As I continued to expand on the use of creative and relaxing exercises with children I often felt ‘guilty” as it was time taken from the academic subjects, but I persisted with it and discovered that behavioral problems, concentration, and relaxation levels improved with many of the children.

I also emphasized the importance of just enjoying an activity where there are no winners and no losers. Everyone was equal. This was of particular benefit to the children with learning difficulties or behavioral problems.

My experience of Kinesiology(muscle biofeedback testing), both from personal experience of it, training as a therapist, and using it in my clinic gave me more detailed insights into the problems experienced by both children and adults regarding concentration problems,learning difficulties, emotional imbalances and physical energy levels.

I began to notice from my clinical work and research many recurring themes with children coming for help with physical, mental and emotional imbalances. I noticed the level of ‘competitive stress” present in children. Lots of children felt they had to be high achievers or” the best” at many subjects and even very minor errors caused self-esteem issues. This was noticeable in many children who presented with physical symptoms e.g. sleeping problems, digestive problems and headaches. Often those children were not experiencing any problems with learning but were holding stress in their physical bodies. Many children diagnosed as A.D.D. and A.D.H.D were very creative, intelligent, sensitive children and because of a variety of circumstances were having problems in school and at home with learning difficulties, behavior, physical health problems and emotional balance. As the idea for the series of programs got stronger in my mind I wanted the design to include all children, not just children with specific problems. I also wanted the programs to assist with bringing balance into the stressful and competitive world we now all live in.

I know they needed to be designed in a specific way to make the programs easy to use in home and school settings, to help children in relaxation and learning processes, to assist with self-esteem and emotional issues, and most importantly bring in fun and enjoyment into the creative process.

I designed 3 core points into all the audio programs and activity books.                                         

1. Right/left Brain Integration.
2. Imagination
3. Assisted Imagination Techniques.

The first Imagination Gym story The Enchanted Forest was written in
Nov 1999. At that time parts of what I was creating were not fully clear to me, but my main concern was to get the concepts and outlines of the series into written form.

I explained the idea for the series of stories and activity books to a friend of mine, Peter Blackbyrne. I showed him the drafts of some of the stories and activity books. He decided to become involved in the project and together we set up Bright-Child Productions Ltd in 2000, a company dedicated to creating and designing all the programs in the series.

From 2000 to date we have both been intensively involved in writing, researching and creating all the programs in the series. This involved testing and researching the programs and activity books in both home and educational and childcare settings.

Many people who understood the concept of what we were working on, assisted us with their enthusiasm and their time, and we now have a core group of consultants in different disciplines, who have a deep understanding of the design and usage of the programs.

The Enchanted Forest program (CD/Activity Book) has been part of Masters Education Programs and Holistic Education Courses at University levels and is also recognized by Depts of Education as Teacher In-Service Training in Social/Personal/Health Education. Presentations are made regularly at educational conferences.

Many teachers are using The Enchanted Forest program to enhance learning and deal with emotional and behavioral issues and we are constantly receiving positive feedback from users worldwide. This includes mainstream classes, resource teaching, special education and as part of individual lesson plans.

We have also designed a specific Imagination Gym® photography project for schools using The Enchanted Forest program integrated with photography. This was researched and developed over 4 years working on a school Outreach Project assisted and co-coordinated by The Gallery of Photography ,Temple Bar , Dublin, Ireland.

Training courses are provided to teachers interested in implementing the program and we have registered Imagination Gym® Photographers who are involved in lecturing, training and working with children in school projects.

Children have really benefited from the creative processes of the project and love the technical and exhibition phases involved.

An interesting development of our research is that many adults responded by saying that they were using the program for themselves for a variety of reasons: e.g. sleeping problems, stress, and problem solving as well as using it with their children.

This was not part of our designed usage. We explored this idea further and discovered that the audio programs and activity books are ideal family products. i.e. They can be used by both children and adults with both groups deriving benefits in different ways and at different levels. Children also enjoy when a parent, guardian or teacher sits and joins in with an activity and the adult gets an opportunity to do something fun and relaxing with a child without it having to be another ‘CHORE” in an already stressful day.

At the moment The Enchanted Forest CD is available in both the English German and Irish languages.

The Magic Balloon Ride CD is in production at the moment and the accompanying activity book is being designed.

My vision of what I wanted the program to help with is now becoming a visible reality as more and more adults and children worldwide are connecting with the positive benefits of using Imagination Gym® products in the stressful world we live in.

The positive feedback we are receiving means we can build on all the experience and research we have, to create new, exciting, fun programs, which will help children, connect with the power inside themselves in a balanced way.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the adults and children who have worked with us since 1999. Without this assistance and help Imagination Gym® products would not exist today.

If you feel you may be interested in setting up a research project using Imagination Gym® Programs please contact us for more details.

This may be of particular interest to Universities, Education and Medical Institutions and Charitable Institutes concerned with the well-being and personal development of children and adults.